Published: August 19, 2008 01:24 am      

Making progress

Last two contracts for Gateway project set

FAIRMONT — State highway officials said the last two contracts for the new Gateway Connector highway from downtown Fairmont to Interstate 79 will be put out for bids at the end of the month.

The final contracts for the four-lane road from the bridge to I-79 will be ready to advertise soon, said Greg Phillips, the regional manager for the state Division of Highways.

The DOH will start seeking bidders late next week, he said.

The contracts could be awarded by Thanksgiving if the process goes as planned, he said Monday.

One of the contracts — Contract Seven — calls for grading, drainage and paving from the new interchange on I-79 to Haymond Street. The other contract — Contract Eight — calls for the same work from Columbia Street to Haymond Street.

A spokeswoman for the state Transportation Department in Charleston said it usually takes about five weeks for contractors to submit bids for the state road work.

“We expect actual bids to come in sometime in October,” the DOT spokeswoman said.

It will then take several more weeks to review the bids, she said.

Gov. Joe Manchin broke a funding logjam on the 1 1/2-mile road in mid-June. He ordered the transfer of state and federal highway funds from four other road projects facing delays. Those new roads are being delayed by environmental concerns or design and right-of-way problems.

Manchin’s move would shave two or more years off the local project, officials said at the time. The new target date for completion is 2010.

Meanwhile, construction crews with Mountaineer Contractors Inc. of Kingwood are moving water lines near Merchant Street and the High Level Bridge. Since the bridge over the Monongahela River is the lowest point on the new road, the work near and around the bridge has to be done first.

“We’re also installing a main drainage line into which everything else will drain,” said John Boyle, vice president of operations for the firm.

As much as a mile of drainage pipe will be installed within the first two-tenths of the roadway, Boyle said earlier this year.

The Preston County firm has also started to finish the on-and-off ramps at the new interstate interchange (Exit 136).

Mountaineer will finish its work on the road — from the east end of the High Level Bridge to a point near Columbia Street — and the interchange late next summer, Boyle said.

E-mail Bill Byrd at bbyrd@timeswv.com.