Latest News, WV Press Videos

W.Va. lawmaker in D.C. to address highway crisis

Herald-Dispatch photo by Sholten Singer Construction continues along Interstate 64 on Thursday, July 10, 2014, in Huntington. Projects like this may come to a halt if Congress does not fund the U.S. Highway Trust Fund by August 1st.
Herald-Dispatch photo by Sholten Singer
Construction continues along Interstate 64 on Thursday, July 10, 2014, in Huntington. Projects like this may come to a halt if Congress does not fund the U.S. Highway Trust Fund by August 1st.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — As of right now, there are 203 active road projects in the state of West Virginia that depend to some degree on money from the federal Highway Trust Fund, according to state Sen. Robert Plymale, D-W.Va.

And all of those could be slowed or brought to a halt if the federal trust isn’t funded by the time the upcoming Congressional break begins on Aug. 1.

That’s why Plymale, along with six other state legislators from across the country, were in Washington on Thursday to speak with Congressional leaders on the topic as representatives of the National Conference of State Legislators.

Plymale is the director of the Rahall Transportation Institute in Huntington and serves on the state Senate Transportation Committee.

“It’s a pretty critical situation,” Plymale said during a telephone interview Thursday. “We have to fix things within the next three weeks.”

The federal government has $38 billion in the Highway Trust Fund through Sept. 30, but that is actually expected to run out by late August, and there is no new funding for the fiscal year beginning Nov. 1.

There was movement in Washington Thursday…

Comments are closed.

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

And get our latest content in your inbox

Invalid email address