WESTOVER, W.Va. The bid date for improvements to Holland Avenue has been set for August 20, and work on the $3.9 million project could begin this fall.
Director of the Department of Public Works for the city of Westover, Jason Stinespring, said the scope of the project is to replace more than 2,000 feet of decades-old sanitary and storm lines running from just past the bridge to Morgantown to the top of the hill, including the retaining wall. The major connector with Morgantown, which also carries a large volume of truck traffic, has been improved in many years.
“The complete reinstallation of the new sewer line and the new storm line, and within those trenches, the base will be put back, and it will be black-topped back,” Stinespring said.
Because the stretch of road is so busy, the state Department of Highways (DOH) has ordered the work to be done at night, requiring the contractor to reopen the road for daily traffic. During the work shift, regular-sized vehicles will drive through on one lane maintained through the work zone, but commercial traffic will be redirected.
“Overnight, there will be one lane kept open that cars and regular pickup trucks can use,” Stinespring said. “Any tractor-trailers that come through overnight will have to go down Mon Avenue and go down that way.”
Stinespring said it will be up to the contractor to plan the sequence for the work operations, but he expects the traffic pattern for work operations to be in place well into 2025.
“Whether they’re starting from the bottom or the top, they’ll have to do one lane all the way down and then come back and do the other lane all the way down, and the wall will be part of that as well,” Stinespring said. “It’s going to be time-consuming work, and I would be surprised if it was anything less than six to eight months.”
During the project, the Morgantown Utility Board will also begin an unrelated project to replace some of their facilities. The flurry of activity will be a welcome sight for a community hoping for improvements to the street for many years.
“We’re really excited to get this done, and we know everyone has been waiting for it, so we ask everyone to be patient. It’s going to be a pain while it’s getting done, but when it’s done, it will be a whole new road,” Stinespring said. “So, we’re excited, and we know the citizens are too.”
Stinespring said many of the storm and sanitary lines under it are possibly from the 1950’s, and many have cracked or completely failed. Some sewer lines may have been replaced over the years, but those are likely very small sections that were replaced years ago.
“I think it’s the old terra-cotta,” Stinespring said. “Some of it could be 1960’s or 1970’s, but I think the initial lines would have been put in there in the 1950’s more than likely.”
A pre-bid meeting for the project will be held on July 30.