Route 10 Closure Causing Concerns

LOGAN COUNTY, W.Va. -- Detours, delays, and dangers are all top of mind in Logan County where a major stretch of road is closed.

Tuesday night, a crowd packed the auditorium at Man High School to voice their concerns to Department of Transportation officials and community leaders.

Brent Walker, a spokesman with the Department of Transportation, says with all the rain this summer causing rock slides, the road being closed is a necessary inconvenience while crews work to repair it.

Crews had been working on the road and letting traffic through every 15 minutes, but Walker says that is no longer a viable option.

"The thought was we could stabilize that hillside and let them continue to work,” Walker said. “In those 15 minutes our contractor could only work seven minutes, because in the next remaining eight minutes, they needed to sweep the road off so we could continue to get traffic. We'd be here for a year in that process."

People at the meeting complained the detour over Kelly Mountain, along with taking about an extra 20 minutes, has a long list of problems also. Crews are working to put guardrails up and pave, leaving several parts of that road being closed to one lane.

Officials say they weren't prepared for that road seeing so much traffic.

Highway officials say they'll try to get coal trucks to come through at less busy hours to cut down on traffic on the detour route.

They're also having additional ambulances and a HealthNet helicopter stationed closeby to ease concerns about the extra time it'll take emergency patients to get to the hospital.