WV 9 freeways near Charles Town

[treichard]

It had been perhaps 7 years since I last visited Charles Town, WV.  Construction was then going on for the trumpet interchange between US 340 and Future WV 9. I hadn't paid much attention to the project since then.

I revisited the area this past weekend and saw what became of that project: a pair of completed overpasses with a full trumpet's worth of grassy graded ramps, with no construction zone in sight.  What's the plan for completing this project, and how far eastward does this partially completed section extend?

Next I drove through town and north along WV 115 to meet WV 9 -- then onto the new-looking freeway that extended north and downgraded to an arterial highway near Martinsburg.  Great drive, and the left turn from WV 115 NB to WV 9 NB was of course much easier with the new diamond on-ramp.

WV 9/WV 45 form a basic bypass of US 11 in the SE part of Martinsburg.  The WV 45 routing didn't make perfect sense at first glance.  Following it WB, it joins US 11 SB, then splits from US 11 on US 11's east side just to intersect US 11 again and cross to the west side.  My guess is that this was necessary to number the highways without a short new number for WV 45 between US 11 and WV 9.

[froggie]

The grading related to the future US 340/WV 9 trumpet extends about a mile to the east (to the first cross-road).  There's a project that's been going on for several months now to continue grading the new right-of-way all the way to the Virginia line.  When I was last in the area a couple months ago, the bridge over the Shenandoah had not begun yet, but the approaches were being graded.  According to WVDOH's Route 9 page (updated a couple months ago), they anticipate the US 340-to-Virginia segment to be complete in about 2 years (Fall 2012).

[ARMOURERERIC]

Was looking at some new Bing map images last night, appears the bridge over the Shanendoah is well underway, most grading west of the bridge is in place with two ramps at the 340 trumpet gravelled to use for construction access.  But it looks like most of the paving and such is done east of the bridge all the way to the tie in at existing route 9

[treichard]

After the WV 9 expressway was completed between Martinsburg and Kearneysville, was WV 480 extended southward to meet the WV 9 interchange? Or does WV 480 still end at Charles Town Road (old WV 9)?

[treichard]

I visited the Martinsburg area this weekend and tried to answer the question in my previous post.  WV has not extended WV 480 southward to meet WV 9 at the interchange.  Signs from several directions of the WV 480 and Charles Town Road (Old WV 9) intersection make this clear.

But why wouldn't WV 480 be extended a little southward so that the state highway system includes this connection?  It also wasn't clear if WV 115 continues all the way to WV 9 at the interchange north of Charles Town.  It was ambiguous if it ended at CR 1, just 0.2 mi or so short of WV 9.