By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
managing editor
KEYSER — The replacement of the Ellifritz Bridge on U.S. Route 50 near the intersection with county Route 972 at New Creek was completed early, and replacement of the bridge at the intersection of Route 50 and county Route 11 (Patterson Creek Road) in Burlington has been delayed.
Lee Thorne, District 5 engineer for the West Virginia Division of Highways, gave an update on those and other DOH projects Tuesday when the U.S. Route 50 Association met at The Candlewyck Inn in Keyser.
Thorne told the group that the Ellifritz bridge project, which kept a portion of Route 50 closed, forcing the rerouting of traffic over the Cut-Off Road (U.S. Route 220) for several months, was not
scheduled to be completed until June of 2010.
The contractors were able to finish the work early, however, and the bridge was re-opened to traffic on Oct. 15.
As for the bridge over Patterson Creek in Burlington, Thorne said a number of issues are causing the design process to be a bit longer than expected.
“It's in a historic area, and it's a very bad intersection. In addition, there's a difference in the elevation between the bridge and Route 50,” he said. “There are just a lot of factors to take into consideration.”
Although construction on the bridge was originally programmed for September 2010, Thorne said that has been pushed back.
A third bridge located on Route 50 at Romney is still “slated to be done next September.”
Members of the Route 50 Association also briefly discussed several other projects, including Corridor H and the proposed Route 220 upgrade.
“We've got over $300 million scheduled in Corridor H projects up through 2017,” Brian Carr, also of the WV DOH, told the group.
“This $300 million will pretty much take us all the way from Davis to Moorefield.”
When asked about the stretch of highway proposed between Davis and Parsons, however, Carr said that was not included in the cited amount.
As for Routes 219 and 220, David Moe of Garrett County reported on a Greater Cumberland Committee meeting held recently during which the group decided to send a delegation to Washington, D.C., “to meet with the six senators from Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia” to discuss the proposed upgrade of Route 219 over to Somerset, Pa.
It was noted that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley had released additional funds for the Tier I study for the Route 220 upgrade, which will identify the potenyial corridors for the new highway.
Once the studies in both Maryland and West Virginia are complete, the data will be forwarded to the federal Highway Administration, and it is expected they should have a recommended corridor by April.
Tier II will then create the alignment for the highway.
Craig Jennings, Preston County Commissioner currently serving as chairperson of the Route 50 Association, noted that the status of all these highways have an effect on Route 50.
“I know this is the Route 50 Association, but a lot of these issues bear a lot of weight,” he said.
Mona Ridder, executive director of the Mineral County Development Authority, added that, “regardless of what corridor is chosen (for Route 220), it will either run parallel with or intersect Route 50.”
The next meeting of the Route 50 Association will be Tuesday, Jan. 5, at a location to be announced in Grant County.
Keyser, W.Va. —
