Life in West Virginia: NOW HIRING HIGHWAY ENGINEERS IN WEST VIRGINIA!!!

Monday, November 27, 2006

NOW HIRING HIGHWAY ENGINEERS IN WEST VIRGINIA!!!

Okay, that's my thoughts on the whole ordeal. After 2 years of construction and about 2 years of use, the 4-lane that links I-77 (in Mineral Wells) to the two lane leading to Coldwater Creek's customer service and distribution center AND the Patriot Center shopping center in Pettyville, which includes a plethora of retailers including Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Bob Evans, Kohl's and Ryan's just to name a few, has been closed. Yup, half of the 4-lane slipped over the hill . . . . Two lanes of highway just slid over the embankment that was built to carry traffic over the hill rather the winding narrow two lane that had been used to carry semis, dump trucks and just us plain old folks that go shopping into Parkersburg (Pettyville has acutally been annexed by P-burg) is now gone. Actually, the slip has been gradual, occuring over a 6 week period and with each passing rain Bridgette and I would be like, "They had better do something . . . ." "OMG, look how much WORSE it is today than two days ago" and "Geez, when are they gonna do something??"

So even though the businesses in the area that the highway's creation was supposed to expediate traffic through the area to and from has more than doubled, the highway leading there now has been cut in half again. We are driving the "old" RT 14 now just to get to Wal-Mart and it is a PITA. I can only imagine what it will be like when holiday traffic kicks in even more in the next few weeks . . .

They even have some major traffic issues in terms of heavy, slow traffic from South Parkersburg to the Patriot Center that was supposed to be dealt with next . . . who really knows how long it will take them to fix this issue though which will have to be dealt with before the S.Parkersburg to Pettyville reengineering.

The WHOLE thing was shut down, not just the two lanes that it affected so I am assuming the severity of the slip is a huge safety concern. Anyhow, I am personally taking it upon myself to start looking for engineers that have some sense about them . . . this is not the first slip to occur on RT14 . . . the old RT14 2-lane had a slip too when it was rerouted during the construction of a hotel in the area. Write to Joe Manchin with your requirements for salary:

Gov. Joe Manchin III
1900 Kanawha Boulevard, E.,
Charleston, WV 25305

Toll-Free: 1-888-438-2731
E-mail: Governor@WVGov.org

Anyone would be better than the ones that we must have on staff now . . . . I may apply myself as I could see the how the mass removal of the trees along the 4 lane could lead to the slip occuring as happened with the previous slippage . . . .