One of the original maintenance
facilities built for the West Virginia Turnpike will soon be razed and a new,
state of the art facility will take its place. The Parkways Authority
recently signed off on the project slated for the operations in the Beckley
“We want to tear those down and put
in a new maintenance facility to replace the ones that were built in the
1950′s,” said Parkways General Manger Greg Barr. “Also replace the State Police
facility which is one of the old buildings from the 1950′s which was
reengineered to support a State Police barracks.”
The cost of the project is expected
to be $3.6 Million and it will take about two years to complete the 18,000
square foot facility. Barr said they’ll have to cope with the
construction.
“We’ll start construction where the
parking lot is now and work our way back into the existing maintenance
building,” Barr said. “Our maintenance crews will be dispersed over to the
heavy equipment shop which is across the road.”
Barr said it’s a project sorely
needed because it’s one of the busiest garages on the Turnpike.
“It will have three maintenance
bays capable of lifting three salt trucks. It will house the maintenance
staff and equipment as well as the State Police in the central part of the
Turnpike,” he said.
The construction will also include
demolition of the existing salt storage facility which has fallen into
disrepair. It will be rebuilt and made larger with the work which should get
underway in a few weeks.
