Historic flooding across West Virginia at the end of last month has resulted in significant damage to many roads across the state but urgent repairs have already begun. Overall costs for needed repairs are estimated to be in the region of $40 million and the Federal Government has kicked in emergency relief funds of $5 million thus far.
Over a dozen different contractors have been hired by the state to perform urgent infrastructure repairs following the flooding which impacted many major travel corridors in the state. In all, some 19 counties have reported road damages due to the disastrous weather.
Image Credit: West Virginia Department of Transportation.
Flooding and mudslides were each responsible for damages and U.S. Representative Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) confirmed that West Virginia will receive $5 million in emergency relief funds from the Federal Highway Administration to aid in repairing and reconstructing flood-impacted federal highways and roads.
Initially ensuring that all towns are once again connected and commerce can return to near business as usual, the government have committed to the state that further review of the repair costs will be considered as the giant clean up operation continues. While some initial repairs will be emergency solutions to help improve matters, the long-term goal is to restore highways to their condition prior to the weather damage last month. Depending on the scope of individual projects it is hoped that preliminary repairs will be completed within 30 to 90 days.
