County: WVDOH Warming to Idea of Second Highlands Exit
Photo by Joselyn King Trending
TRIADELPHIA - The results of a traffic study conducted during the late holiday season at The Highlands have state officials thinking a second interchange is needed there, Ohio County Development Authority members learned this week.
The traffic study was conducted on a weekend in December just before Christmas, Ohio County Administrator Randy Russell told them. Results indicated that between the years 2019 and 2022, traffic within The Highlands Development grew at an annual rate of 3.8%.
"Other developments in the state are seeing an increase of 1.5%," Russell continued. "So we are more than doubling the traffic at The Highlands on an annual basis. A lot of that can be attributed to the sports complex."
Commissioner Zach Abraham said officials with the West Virginia Division of Highways took notice when he and other representatives from Ohio County met with them recently.
"We saw their eyes bubble up and say they realized the amount of traffic that is coming in here consistently - thus the need for another interchange," Abraham said. "It is a good thing we did this to prove that point."
County Solicitor Don Tennant said their reaction represented a change from past years when DOH representatives balked at the idea of a second interchange for The Highlands.
"There were people at the meeting from the state saying you don't need a second interchange, that you're just going to divide where the same traffic is going to go," he continued. "You remember? There were some naysayers around the table."
Russell said the traffic study also noted something else that's different about traffic at The Highlands. Most developments have a peak traffic time in the morning, and another in the evening. At The Highlands, traffic has a sustained peak lasting throughout the day.
Russell attributed this to diversification of tenants at The Highlands - which includes not just retail offerings, but also industrial operations and medical offices.
The next traffic study is planned to take place later this month or early in April, he continued.
"We wanted to do one in the off-season as well, which is typical to what we've done in the past," Russell explained.
And the state officials now want to meet with county officials on a more regular basis - perhaps as often as each quarter - to review traffic numbers at The Highlands.
"It was probably the most positive conservation we've had with the state since we started making those trips," Russell said.
West Virginia Secretary of Transportation Jimmy Wriston has informed the county the additional interchange for The Highlands is on a list of prospective projects for the state, and Ohio County will now reach out to the Belomar Regional Planning Commission to get the project included on the local TIP (Transportation Improvement Plan).
"Once we do that, that fast tracks us to getting something accomplished," Russell told OCDA members.
The county presently has about $700,000 directed to the project courtesy of a federal earmark secured by former U.S. Rep. David B. McKinley, R-W.Va., he continued. The money will be used to update the proposed design for the interchange and do some needed environmental work.
If Ohio County works to combine available state and federal funding with local dollars, that could be the key to convincing the state to support the project, Abraham said.