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Poor W. Va. Road Conditions Explained During DOT Budget Hearing

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Committee members heard from various offices that make up the department of transportation – the Division of Motor Vehicles, the Division of Highways, the State Rail Authority, the Division of Public Transit, the Public Port Authority, the Aeronautics Commission and the Office of Administrative Hearings.

Like in many other budget hearings, officials from each office laid out how they will handle their finances to deal with the upcoming tight fiscal years.

Secretary of the Department of Transportation Paul Mattox explained the state main roadway’s paving cycle was at a 28 year average and needed to decrease that number.

Delegate Larry Williams wanted to know how long the paving cycle for West Virginia’s secondary roads was.

“Over the past five years taking an average of our county road system paving cycle, we’re up to 33.7 years,” Mattox said.

Finance Chairman Brent Boggs says that after learning the condition that the state roads are in, it is now up to legislatures to develop a plan for remedy.

“It costs money to maintain roads,” Boggs said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us in trying to come up with some unique ways to better fund our roads and get that repaving schedule to something that’s more reasonable.”