West Virginia

[vdeane]

I'm confused by that sentence vdeane. All lanes are open to EZ-Pass, and there are usually two lanes open only for EZ-Pass.

From the end of the article:

The new system will also enable the Parkways Authority to keep all lanes open at all times at the toll plazas, Miller said.

"Each lane will now have the variable dynamic message boards above it. It will be digital and colored and we'll be able to change those lanes as the traffic pattern shifts,"  Miller said.

For example, if a toll collector has to step out of the booth for a short period of time, the sign can change that booth to an E-ZPass lane instead of shutting the lane down altogether.

[Dirt Roads]

I'm confused by that sentence vdeane. All lanes are open to EZ-Pass, and there are usually two lanes open only for EZ-Pass.

From the end of the article:

The new system will also enable the Parkways Authority to keep all lanes open at all times at the toll plazas, Miller said.

"Each lane will now have the variable dynamic message boards above it. It will be digital and colored and we'll be able to change those lanes as the traffic pattern shifts,"  Miller said.

For example, if a toll collector has to step out of the booth for a short period of time, the sign can change that booth to an E-ZPass lane instead of shutting the lane down altogether.

I see where the confusion is.  The current tollgates on the West Virginia Turnpike have EZ-Pass Only lanes and Cash lanes that accept EZ-Pass.  Whenever a Cash Lane doesn't have a tolltaker at the helm, it must be closed to all traffic under the current setup.  The new VMS signage will allow those lanes to be reposted as EZ-Pass Only lanes.  This should have been in place on Day 1 of the implementation of EZ-Pass.  However, it is my understanding that the toll collectors raised too many concerns about job security.

[rickmastfan67]

- Canada.  If a person is a true "snowbird"  then ONE round trip per year pays the cost of the "frequent user"  EZ Pass.  The turnpike really should be like 90% EZ Pass.   The frequent user deal is too good to pass up.  The only people that should pay cash are people that come through the area less than once per year.

Even if the people are using the I-79 -> US-19 -> I-77 way to get to Florida and bypassing the majority of the Turnpike?  Granted, I haven't been to Florida in ages, so I'm not up to speed on the current prices for EZPass in that section.

[Rothman]

I'm confused by that sentence vdeane. All lanes are open to EZ-Pass, and there are usually two lanes open only for EZ-Pass.

From the end of the article:

The new system will also enable the Parkways Authority to keep all lanes open at all times at the toll plazas, Miller said.

"Each lane will now have the variable dynamic message boards above it. It will be digital and colored and we'll be able to change those lanes as the traffic pattern shifts,"  Miller said.

For example, if a toll collector has to step out of the booth for a short period of time, the sign can change that booth to an E-ZPass lane instead of shutting the lane down altogether.

I see where the confusion is.  The current tollgates on the West Virginia Turnpike have EZ-Pass Only lanes and Cash lanes that accept EZ-Pass.  Whenever a Cash Lane doesn't have a tolltaker at the helm, it must be closed to all traffic under the current setup.  The new VMS signage will allow those lanes to be reposted as EZ-Pass Only lanes.  This should have been in place on Day 1 of the implementation of EZ-Pass.  However, it is my understanding that the toll collectors raised too many concerns about job security.

Finally catching up with the NY Thruway after 20 years or so?

[SP Cook]

Even if the people are using the I-79 -> US-19 -> I-77 way to get to Florida and bypassing the majority of the Turnpike?  Granted, I haven't been to Florida in ages, so I'm not up to speed on the current prices for EZPass in that section.

You are right, North Beckley is 75 cents, and the one mainline is $4.25 for $5, for $10 roundtrip.  One year EZ Pass is $26.50.    If you take the all-interstate way, however, which most GPS addicted types do (a mistake) it is $4.25 X 3 X 2 = $25.50.

[Bitmapped]

- License plate readers.  The only prohibition WV has, AFAIK, is a ban on red light cameras and other non-human random tax schemes, such as speed cams.  Which is a good thing, IMHO. 

The WV 43 deal, from what I have been told, was just politics.  The excuse they used at the time was that it would be cost prohibitive for Turnpike maintenance people to travel all the way across the state to take care of 6 miles of road, nor could a staff be permanently stationed there.  Both of which are true, but left unanswered is why the ordinary local DOH could not take care of the road and bill their time to the Turnpike.  It was just Morgantown's desire to pay no tolls, which makes little sense as there is only one exit in the state, and its tolled in PA.

When WV 43 was built, it repurposed to the old Exit #10 on I-68 that previously connected to CR 857. Traffic going to CR 857, whether it be to the Cheat Lake area or to Pennsylvania, must now get on WV 43. Tolling a previously free movement would have been unpalatable.

Pennsylvania allows free travel between the state line and Exit #2, which connects to PA 857. Traffic has grown on the tolled portion over time, but there is still a decent amount of traffic that exits at PA Exit #2 to shunpike. It's not that everyone using the WV portion is paying PA tolls.

[Dirt Roads]

When WV 43 was built, it repurposed to the old Exit #10 on I-68 that previously connected to CR 857. Traffic going to CR 857, whether it be to the Cheat Lake area or to Pennsylvania, must now get on WV 43. Tolling a previously free movement would have been unpalatable.

Pennsylvania allows free travel between the state line and Exit #2, which connects to PA 857. Traffic has grown on the tolled portion over time, but there is still a decent amount of traffic that exits at PA Exit #2 to shunpike. It's not that everyone using the WV portion is paying PA tolls.

Plus, the combination LSR-857 and PA-857 is not a bad road.  It has always been the preferred route over US-119 from Morgantown to Uniontown, and got many upgrades in comparison.  Back in the mid-1980s, the town of Fairchance was a bit of a slowdown, but it lost most of its industrial base by the early 1990s and nowadays is not much of an impediment to traffic.  I haven't been back that way for a number of years, so I still haven't been on any of Toll WV-43 nor the section of Toll PA-43 south of Gans. 

[SP Cook]

When WV 43 was built, it repurposed to the old Exit #10 on I-68 that previously connected to CR 857. Traffic going to CR 857, whether it be to the Cheat Lake area or to Pennsylvania, must now get on WV 43. Tolling a previously free movement would have been unpalatable.

Yes, I get that, try extending tolls on a road paid off in 1986 forever for "unpalatable".  However the toll proposal placed the WV booth just south of the state line, exiting local traffic at Cheat Lake was not to be tolled.  Another proposal was to simply raise the toll at the last PA booth and have PA share the $$. 

[VTGoose]

It's not even holiday weekends anymore. It can be a weekend. There was a time - I think it was the first warm weekend of the spring, I sat in traffic at the Ghent toll plaza for 20 minutes just to get to a clear lane. All lanes were open. The northern toll plaza can also be a disaster when beach traffic starts up.

It doesn't help that you have to slow to 5 MPH to have your transponder read. Not that it mattered at Ghent going north since construction just north of the toll plaza squeezed everyone into one lane. We drove to Charleston on Friday and I'm still trying to figure out what I got for my $12.75. Construction just north of the Bluestone bridge had traffic backed up to the Concord exit, which added more travel time in addition to the work at Ghent. Most of the road is in OK shape but there are still a lot of rough spots. One would think that with the money that is supposed to be going to Turnpike construction/maintenance that there would be more expansion to three lanes in more places.

It has been a while since I've been on the turnpike, so the $4.25 toll at one booth was a shock. It is much better than the "Modern 2-lane highway" that I paid $3.00 to travel from end to end on, but I'm not seeing the value in the higher toll.

Bruce in Blacksburg

[roadman65]

Is there a present long term closing of US 219 in the Appalachian region?  I heard on line through travel is halted until the Fall of 2022?

[seicer]

No. There is construction on Corridor H (US 48 and US 219) northeast of Elkins which involves the reconstruction of the Harperstown Road bridge - which is 21 years old. The abutments are sinking/failing. While it's not a major issue now, the state is rebuilding the abutments while there is limited traffic on that section of Corridor H - before the next segment opens to Parsons which is currently under construction. Traffic is essentially routed on the old alignment.

[Bitmapped]

It's not even holiday weekends anymore. It can be a weekend. There was a time - I think it was the first warm weekend of the spring, I sat in traffic at the Ghent toll plaza for 20 minutes just to get to a clear lane. All lanes were open. The northern toll plaza can also be a disaster when beach traffic starts up.

It doesn't help that you have to slow to 5 MPH to have your transponder read. Not that it mattered at Ghent going north since construction just north of the toll plaza squeezed everyone into one lane. We drove to Charleston on Friday and I'm still trying to figure out what I got for my $12.75. Construction just north of the Bluestone bridge had traffic backed up to the Concord exit, which added more travel time in addition to the work at Ghent. Most of the road is in OK shape but there are still a lot of rough spots. One would think that with the money that is supposed to be going to Turnpike construction/maintenance that there would be more expansion to three lanes in more places.

It has been a while since I've been on the turnpike, so the $4.25 toll at one booth was a shock. It is much better than the "Modern 2-lane highway" that I paid $3.00 to travel from end to end on, but I'm not seeing the value in the higher toll.

Bruce in Blacksburg

The last toll increase, from $2.00, wasn't to improve the Turnpike. It was a "gouge out-of-state drivers" plan to fund revenue bonds for Roads to Prosperity projects throughout southern West Virginia.

[seicer]

To some extent, the physical condition of the Turnpike has improved. The bridges are generally in very good condition (and in much better condition than those on WVDOH routes) and do not require rehabilitation - but they are also newer and less complex with the exception of the Bluestone River crossing. The pavement is questionable partly because of the failure of the concrete pavement throughout, mainly because of mid-slab cracking all throughout the Turnpike. It looks like the worst of it is being outright replaced in the vicinity of the Bluestone River bridge right now.

But tolls are being used not to fund Turnpike projects, but projects throughout the southern tier of the state - all roadway related unlike when the Turnpike fell under the broader tourism banner. The WV 10 rehab from Mullens to US 19, which involved widening roadway widths, rebuilding embankments, revising superelevations, full-depth pavement repairs, and rehabbed bridges, was funded through tolls. I think tolls are also funding US 121/Coalfields Expressway as well. It's a trade-off because the state would otherwise have the shoulder these costs and projects like the Coalfields Expressway would probably never get built at any reasonable speed otherwise. (No opinion expressed.)

[sbeaver44]

I drove through the I-81 widening project between Exits 8 (CR 32) and 12  (WV 45) southbound last night, and I saw traffic having three lanes headed northbound, but I was still stuck with only two lanes headed southbound for now.

This may just be coincidence, but I have noticed since about 2009 that every time I drive by Exit 8 on 81 it seems like there's construction there

[74/171FAN]

I drove through the I-81 widening project between Exits 8 (CR 32) and 12  (WV 45) southbound last night, and I saw traffic having three lanes headed northbound, but I was still stuck with only two lanes headed southbound for now.

This may just be coincidence, but I have noticed since about 2009 that every time I drive by Exit 8 on 81 it seems like there's construction there

There are three lanes in both directions here now.  I drove through it Thursday Morning.

[seicer]

I was behind a work crew the other day that was cutting out the seam between two lanes and wondered if the seam could be eliminated if they had a much larger paving machine. Then I thought back to my recent drive on US 35 and looked back on some of my aerials I took: there were no seams in the most recent section that opened.

Turned out, WVDOH invested in a double-wide machine to lay down asphalt: https://transportation.wv.gov/communications/PressRelease/Pages/Twice-as-nice-Double-wide-paving-machine-in-use-on-US-35.aspx

It would be nice to see this applied on more roads but it requires the closure of both lanes of traffic.

[Black-Man]

"Open road tolling"  is not mentioned in the article, so probably not.

Only in West Virginia do they spend $25 million only to get the technology of 20 years ago. One of the employees told me they don't have an electronic rate to justify free flow high speed lanes. It's the same attitude that kept the Turnpike 2 lanes until the 1980s. If they would just get the word out on what a great deal the EZPass system is on the Turnpike, their electronic rate would increase. But they want to keep it a secret to the out-of-state crowd because... muh money for a corrupt bureaucracy.

[Dirt Roads]

"Open road tolling"  is not mentioned in the article, so probably not.

Only in West Virginia do they spend $25 million only to get the technology of 20 years ago. One of the employees told me they don't have an electronic rate to justify free flow high speed lanes. It's the same attitude that kept the Turnpike 2 lanes until the 1980s. If they would just get the word out on what a great deal the EZPass system is on the Turnpike, their electronic rate would increase. But they want to keep it a secret to the out-of-state crowd because... muh money for a corrupt bureaucracy.

There are a number of government/authority projects that get mislabeled.  I highly suspect that this upgrade also includes new toll booths, canopies, improved access tunnels, new conduits (perhaps in new ductbank tunnels) along with all of the central computer gadgets.  That certainly doesn't cost $25M, but keeping seven or eight toll booths operating while this is all being constructed probably adds more than $10M to the project. 

[Bitmapped]

Only in West Virginia do they spend $25 million only to get the technology of 20 years ago. One of the employees told me they don't have an electronic rate to justify free flow high speed lanes. It's the same attitude that kept the Turnpike 2 lanes until the 1980s. If they would just get the word out on what a great deal the EZPass system is on the Turnpike, their electronic rate would increase. But they want to keep it a secret to the out-of-state crowd because... muh money for a corrupt bureaucracy.

There are a number of government/authority projects that get mislabeled.  I highly suspect that this upgrade also includes new toll booths, canopies, improved access tunnels, new conduits (perhaps in new ductbank tunnels) along with all of the central computer gadgets.  That certainly doesn't cost $25M, but keeping seven or eight toll booths operating while this is all being constructed probably adds more than $10M to the project. 

There's been no talk of any other improvements. If there were going to be new toll booths or anything of that scale, I hazard to guess someone in WV media would have picked up on it. New conduits seem likely to support the new toll collection system, but I suspect anything else is out of scope.

[Bitmapped]

Turned out, WVDOH invested in a double-wide machine to lay down asphalt: https://transportation.wv.gov/communications/PressRelease/Pages/Twice-as-nice-Double-wide-paving-machine-in-use-on-US-35.aspx

It would be nice to see this applied on more roads but it requires the closure of both lanes of traffic.

That's not WVDOH's paving machine, it's a contractor's. WVDOH very rarely uses median crossovers, even in projects where they would make a whole lot of sense, so I doubt you'll see many cases where a double-wide machine could be used.

[Dirt Roads]

You are in luck... these bridges I have not yet photographed because they look very worn down. I'm glad they are painting both spans in differing colors - which are also the state's official colors and not the colors of the Ukrainian flag (sadly, a lot of online commenters are not aware of that).

That's more like it.  Its not "state road yaller", but that certainly looks like a modern-day WVU color scheme.

While passing over the southbound bridge (original Chuck Yeager span over the Kanawha River) about ten days ago, I noticed that support structure under the northbound lanes had already been painted the new bright WVU yellow color.  Both of the through truss structures appear to be stripped down and awaiting the final paint job to begin.

[Dirt Roads]

The other note from West Virginia:  almost all of the original BGS structures on I-64 in Charleston and South Charleston that were made from COR-TEN steel have been replaced.  I did see one smaller cantilevered sign overhanging the westbound lanes between the two cities.  There may still be others.  The original BGS structures were made of rectangular sections of square box beams, and those had a corrugated mesh COR-TEN lining (that similar to chain-link fencing).  The corrugated lining was removed from all of the signs at least ten years ago.

[seicer]

There was an article in the local newspaper when that was happening ... about 20 years ago? The Corten steel was deteriorating prematurely because of a combination of deicing chemicals and vibrations from passing vehicles. I'm not sure what the difference is between the ones put up in Charleston and Baltimore, MD, and Philadelphia, PA.

[Dirt Roads]

The other note from West Virginia:  almost all of the original BGS structures on I-64 in Charleston and South Charleston that were made from COR-TEN steel have been replaced.  I did see one smaller cantilevered sign overhanging the westbound lanes between the two cities.  There may still be others.  The original BGS structures were made of rectangular sections of square box beams, and those had a corrugated mesh COR-TEN lining (that similar to chain-link fencing).  The corrugated lining was removed from all of the signs at least ten years ago.

There was an article in the local newspaper when that was happening ... about 20 years ago? The Corten steel was deteriorating prematurely because of a combination of deicing chemicals and vibrations from passing vehicles. I'm not sure what the difference is between the ones put up in Charleston and Baltimore, MD, and Philadelphia, PA.

I would suspect that the situation was worse in Baltimore and Philadelphia, due to the proximity to brackish saltwater.  The corrosion process serves to protect the structural properties of COR-TEN steel, but I'm sure that the mesh background simply crumbled away over time (as would any steel mesh).  COR-TEN supposedly has issues with exposure to saltwater and corrosive chemicals, but last time I checked, so does almost every other type of steel.  It wouldn't surprise me that the mini-welds between the box beams and the mesh were the main issue.

Here's a map showing the locations of all the original COR-TEN signs in West Virginia:

[seicer]

Galvanized steel does not exhibit those same issues. It's the main reason why NYSDOT stopped installing Corten guardrails several years ago as many of the Corten guardrails that had been installed were simply rusting apart. They went back to Galvanized steel which does not have the same issue.

It makes me wonder if the New River Gorge Bridge is a low/no salt zone for that reason. Somewhat related, I've seen the installation of unpainted galvanized steel for bridge beams in greater concentrations in multiple states - West Virginia included.