The
West Virginia Division of Highways is waiting on Congress to decide the next
step for the Federal Highway Trust Fund that will be insolvent Aug. 1 if
nothing is done.
The
U.S. House supports a plan that would provide $10.8 billion in funding through
May 31, 2015 and the U.S. Senate is reportedly close to supporting a similar
plan.
“We
don’t know where that’s going to end up, but the fact that everybody is talking
now is a good sign and we hope that we won’t see August 1st with this Highway
Trust Fund becoming insolvent,” state DOH spokesman Brent Walker said.
The
DOH has already contacted the contractors on federal jobs letting them know
they will reduce their payments Aug. 1 if there’s no congressional agreement.
“They
would have the choice of receiving those reduced payments for the work they’ve
done or they could choose to stop construction until the crisis is averted,”
state Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox recently said.
“They
would have to determine how far they could work—whether it’s for free or
pennies on the dollar,” he said.
There are 203 federal funded
highway projects currently taking place in West Virginia
