CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) is making progress in addressing maintenance of the Mountain State’s road and bridge network, but will continue to face funding challenges in the future, according to the most recent TRIP report, released Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
TRIP, of Washington, D.C., is a national transportation research nonprofit group. It’s annual reports can be a useful yardstick in determining how well individual states are doing in maintaining their roads and bridges.
“The TRIP report is a good tool for measuring the condition of highway systems,” said West Virginia Transportation Secretary Stephen T. Rumbaugh, P.E. “We appreciate the data that they collect and the way it serves the public.”
According to the TRIP report, 19 percent of West Virginia’s approximately 7,200 bridges are in poor or structurally deficient condition, meaning they have at least one major issue that needs addressed.
“Poor and structurally deficient does not mean unsafe,” Rumbaugh said. “We would not ask our citizens to cross any bridge we would not willingly cross ourselves.”
The 19 percent structurally deficient finding is down from 20 percent in 2024. Rumbaugh said the WVDOT has been able to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into bridge replacement and maintenance over the past five years.
The investment is acknowledged in the TRIP report.
“WVDOT was able to increase the annual amount of investment in road, highway, and bridge repairs and improvements by 67 percent from 2018 to 2023, from $678 million to $1.132 billion,” the TRIP report says. “Since 2018, WVDOT has repaved nearly 8,400 miles of roadway and made repairs to more than 3,400 bridges.”
“Our goal is to get the number of poor bridges down below 10 percent,” Rumbaugh said.
The TRIP report also noted that, as in much of the country, fatalities on Mountain State roads have increased in recent years. Between 2019 and 2023, the TRIP report says, 1,340 people were killed in highway crashes in West Virginia.
Although the condition of the roadways was a factor in some of those crashes, the national uptick in traffic fatalities is attributed largely to distracted drivers, including drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs, or drivers using cell phones will behind the wheel.
“Any death on a West Virginia highway is one too many,” Rumbaugh said. “Our goal continues to be zero fatalities on our state roads. As far as cell phone use goes, put it down. Look around.”
But the TRIP report also noted that West Virginia will face funding challenges to maintain its highway and bridge systems. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), labor and material costs for highway construction projects increased by 45 percent from 2022 through mid-2024.
“The combination of additional state and federal transportation funding has allowed West Virginia to move forward with numerous projects to improve the condition, use, and efficiency of the surface transportation network,” the TRIP report acknowledges. “While this has allowed the state to undertake dozens of needed transportation projects, West Virginia still faces a funding shortfall to make additional repairs and improvements to its roads and bridges.”
