Dec. 10—MORGANTOWN — Kingwood-based Mountaineer Contractors seems to have cornered the market on Morgantown’s controversial roundabout projects.
The same firm that was awarded a $2, 091, 104 contract in September to build an oval roundabout at the intersection of University Avenue and Collins Ferry Road has now been tapped by the state to build two roundabouts on Green Bag Road.
The Green Bag Road project bid was let to Mountaineer Contractors on Dec. 6 for $18, 332, 804.40.
The West Virginia Division of Highways did not provide The Dominion Post an updated starting date for the work but previously said it’s likely to begin in spring 2025. The DOH did say the project is expected to be finished in fall 2027.
According to DOH Highway Engineer Associate Chad Lowther and Senior Highway Engineer Dirar Ahmad, “the work begins just east of the intersection of Green Bag Road and the Mountaineer Mall entrance and ends at the intersection of Green Bag Road and Jonathan Lane.”
The road will be widened along that portion and a five-foot sidewalk constructed.
More controversially, however, the project will include the construction of two new roundabouts — one at the intersection of Green Bag Road and Kingwood Pike /Dosey Avenue, and one at the intersection with Mississippi Street.
To put the Green Bag Road project in context, the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization conducted a study of the route in 2014-15, looking at the entire corridor, including the operation of the Kingwood Pike and Mississippi Street intersections. It indicated both fail to adequately move vehicles during high traffic times.
In the years that followed, the conversation picked up considerably once it became known that roundabouts were a major component of the state’s prescribed solution.
In a 2020 guest editorial for The Dominion Post, MPO Executive Director Bill Austin explained the reasoning for traffic circles.
“The WVDOH’s preliminary engineering study explored this aspect of the project in depth and found that installing a roundabout would make traveling the corridor significantly quicker than signals would. The roundabout alternative is also safer than signals, since there can be no “T-bone ” accidents in a roundabout. The WVDOH engineering study also shows that, unlike traffic signals, a roundabout can be constructed at a lower cost to taxpayers and does not require displacing a business or a residence.”
But they will require land.
Members of the Hastings family have operated a community garden on their property at the intersection of Green Bag and Kingwood Pike. They rallied the community against the plan, ultimately pressuring the DOH to conduct an environmental study for a project it initially said was exempt from such consideration.
That study opened a public comment opportunity that the state ended up extending due to the amount of feedback received.
Even so, the DOH issued its findings in early 2022—the project would have no significant environmental impact.
It did, however, require funding for community gardens as a means of addressing the loss of the Hastings property. The MPO distributed $15, 000 in community garden grants earlier this year to meet that requirement.
But the Hastings family and their neighbors aren’t the only property owners to be impacted.
The Mississippi Street roundabout will require about two acres of property owned by the city of Morgantown.
That is the location of the city’s maintenance and public works garage, which is soon to undergo significant renovations of its own.
The city has said the loss of the property will not impact the garage’s functionality and that the city remains in full support of the overall Green Bag project.
Lowther previously told The Dominion Post traffic control during construction will be handled with a combination of flaggers, temporary signals and temporary road closures. There is a detour projected to last two weeks using Kingwood Pike, Summer School Road and WV 7.
Long term, this is just the opening phase of work planned for Green Bag Road as local officials aim to make it a more attractive alternative to downtown Morgantown for heavy trucks.
Phase II will essentially address the rest of the road—from Mississippi Street to Don Knotts Boulevard — including improvements to that major intersection — on one end, and from Lucky Lane to Deckers Creek Boulevard on the other.
That project is currently listed at just over $12.4 million.