W.Va. hosting highway maintenance conference

Some of the top minds in the nation in the world of road maintenance have converged on Charleston. The West Virginia Department of Transportation is the host of the sub committee on maintenance of the American Association of State Transportation Officials.

“Every maintenance engineer across the country, in al of the states will be here in Charleston,” said Department of Transportation Spokesman Brent Walker. “They’ll be talking about how to preserve roads across the country.”

The group has a number of events planned for the conference which runs from Sunday through Thursday. Topics will include road maintenance, highway construction, and how best to preserve the roads already in existence. Walker said it’s a hot topic right now in the world of state Departments of Highways.

“The big push is preservation and maintenance of existing facilities in light of not much money on new road construction,” said Walker. “We’ve got to figure out a new way to preserve and maintain what we already have.”

Walker said the conference is an opportunity for those dealing with similar issues daily to share ideas and learn from one another.