Governor announces changes to WVDOT

On Monday, Governor Patrick Morrisey announced plans for sweeping change coming to the WV DOT.

BRIDGEPORT Governor Patrick Morrisey this week announced sweeping changes to the West Virginia Department of Transportation.

During a Monday press conference in Bridgeport, Morrisey said part of the plan is to cut down on administrative staff in the department in order to free up those funds for actual investment into the state’s infrastructure. Due to what the Governor described as wild spending across decades of previous administrations and a hyper-focus on new highway projects throughout the Mountain State, he said the DOT is “basically out of money.”

“Basically, the state was spending so much on some of the new highways without a clear plan for getting them done, when a basic look at our financial numbers made it obvious that we can’t even afford a lot of the existing highways that are on the books,” the Governor said.

A contributing factor to the substantial debt accrued by the DOT stems from the Roads to Prosperity project, which had laid out a plan for 30 years of spending on transportation projects. Governor Morrisey said Monday that those funds were all but gone within the matter of seven years.

And what does the state have to show for that spending? Morrisey said 14 percent of the state’s bridges are rated “poor” by the federal government as well as other surveys. He says by 2028, he aims to have that number down below ten percent. This year, he said the state will spend $1.2 billion on roads, bridges and infrastructure. However, despite having already spent the Roads to Prosperity funds, that project will continue to cost the state billions.

“What’s interesting though about that, is we’re spending about $120 million per year in interest costs. If you think about that and add that up over a thirty-year period, that’s a lot of money,” he said.

Moreover, according to the Governor, West Virginia tallies about $909 in transportation debt per resident, which is drastically higher than the national average. He says the state is going to have to accomplish far more than before with far less with which to work. He said his administration plans to focus primarily on fixing existing roads over starting any new highway projects. A particular focus, according to Morrisey, needs to be the state’s bridges.