Last summer, the West Virginia Division of Highways replaced dozens of older signs with new ones. Workers put up the new road signs — sometimes with new posts or poles — before removing the old ones.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State lawmakers want the Division of Highways to overhaul the way it replaces older signs along four-lane interstates and expressways in West Virginia.
A new report by the Legislature Joint Committee on Government Organization recommends that the highways agency visually inspect individual signs and replace only those that have deteriorated and lost reflectivity. The DOH now swaps out large numbers road signs simultaneously along a designated stretch of a four-lane highway once the signs reach a certain age.
“We’d like them to replace only the signs that are bad,” said Delegate Gary Howell, R-Mineral, who heads the House Government Organization Committee. “It appears that’s cheaper for the taxpayers, and you wind up with higher-quality signs.”
The recommendations follow a Gazette-Mail report last summer about a $1.6 million DOH road-sign replacement project along a 36-mile stretch of Interstate 79 between Charleston and Wallback. In some cases, an Ohio-based contractor hired by the DOH was putting up new signs beside seemingly identical signs — before removing the older signs.
Howell and other legislative leaders criticized the project, saying it created the impression that the DOH was wasting money by erecting duplicate signs.
A Highways spokeswoman said most of the signs hadn’t been replaced since 1993. Many had lost their reflectivity, she said.
Lawmakers directed legislative staff members to investigate, and they released a report this week about their findings…