Multi-Million Dollar Road Project Sees Hiccup, but Set to Proceed for Harrison and Surrounding Counties
By Jeff Toquinto on March 16, 2023
There are thousands of miles of roadway in the District Four area of the West Virginia Division of Highways. Those thousands of miles are not counting U.S. Route 50, Interstate 68, and Interstate 79.
When you consider District Four encompasses Harrison, Doddridge, Marion, Monongalia, Preston, and Taylor Counties and the endless spirals of backgrounds from federal, state and county routes, it is easy to see why. Maintaining those roadways, however, is an ongoing task.
One critical, and one many believe is a much-needed piece of the roadway upgrade puzzle in the area, is expected to take place this 
summer. And that is expected despite an early hiccup in the process.
summer. And that is expected despite an early hiccup in the process.
A multi-million dollar road striping project is anticipated to take place throughout District Four. In fact, Jason Nelson, PE, Construction Engineer for WVDOH District Four, said it will be a significant amount of work.
“It’s approximately 2,500 miles of road in District Four,” said Nelson.
In March, the West Virginia Department of Transportation, which oversees the WVDOH, announced the awarding of millions in contracts from a February bid letting. Among the 34 projects, five of the projects were for roadway striping.
The good news is that bids came in on all the projects. The bad news is that three projects that had a low bid had that bid rejected – including District Four.
“I don’t have a specific reason on this one, but it typically is due to a bid price well over the engineer’s estimate or what is called an unbalanced bid,” said Nelson. “Basically, that is when a contractor overloads the price of certain items and underruns the bids on others.”
The rejection does not mean the project is dead. Instead, Nelson said the project was scheduled to be rebid this past Tuesday, March 14.
“Hopefully, whatever caused the bid to be rejected won’t happen this time,” said Nelson.
While Nelson said he did not have a projected cost, the previous bid that was rejected was $2,737,300.
The project will cause some delays, but nothing lengthy, said Nelson.
“Painting typically has to happen during daylight hours due to temperature and humidity requirements but the paint dries very quickly,” he said. “It’s typically done as a slow-moving rolling roadblock with cones and the contractor’s vehicles. Delays happen but it’s not normally anything long term.”
