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The most lives are claimed on the portion of I-79 between Fairmont and the Morgantown exchange at I-68.
That part of the interstate is curvy and not banked for 80 mph driving.
When the politicans of that building age carved up the right of way land, their plats were here and there.
The highway was placed on that plain instead of taking the road through the very best path.
(Two of them were from The Friendly City and that is the reason that little town ended up with 6 interstate exits.)
The area south of Goshen Road is the most dangerous. More people are killed there than anywhere else.
Agreed. Especially with kids in the car, I'd limit myself to daylight, non-snowy days. Nothing wrong about pulling into a Holiday Inn Express for a day, send the kids to the heated indoor pool, and extending your trip by a day or two.
Christmas Day, I was driving south on I-79. It was just after dawn, about 25 deg, but the sun was coming up. The pavement appeared dry. But at the bridge at Weston, the sun was melting some of the roadside snow, which then ran across the bridge and would refreeze. The dreaded Black Ice!!!
The rear end came around about 20 degrees before I caught it, and it sure scared the guy in the lane next to me, but I was probably a split-second from viewing the highway from the median.
That particular bridge is particularly prone to freezing. I believe they even have an especially big sign about it when approaching from the South. The thing about crossing those bridges, especially at night during winter, is to remember that you might have absolutely no control over steering on them.
The most lives are claimed on the portion of I-79 between Fairmont and the Morgantown exchange at I-68.
That part of the interstate is curvy and not banked for 80 mph driving.
When the politicans of that building age carved up the right of way land, their plats were here and there.
The highway was placed on that plain instead of taking the road through the very best path.
(Two of them were from The Friendly City and that is the reason that little town ended up with 6 interstate exits.)
The area south of Goshen Road is the most dangerous. More people are killed there than anywhere else.
Since we now have a truck stop at Goshen Road, one needs to pay particular attention to having trucks enter the highway at that point too. It's a good idea to back down a bit on the speed from the Pricketts Fort exit to just past Goshen Road.
I always found I-68 on the Maryland side to be in a lot better condition than in West Virginia when it is snowing.Many times 68 would just have one lane plowed in West Virginia and would be wide open once you crossed into Maryland. It is a nice ride on 68 on a sunny day but usually it's raining,snowing,or foggy when I happen to go that way.
In what way, pray tell? I drive that route multiple times a month and would have to disagree.
Most of the road through MD is at a much higher elevation and is more likely to snow. Garrett County can feel like Alaska much of the year, and some of those mountains are tall enough to be approaching (but not surpassing) the tree line.
Most of the road through MD is at a much higher elevation and is more likely to snow. Garrett County can feel like Alaska much of the year, and some of those mountains are tall enough to be approaching (but not surpassing) the tree line.
Sorry about now replying sooner, life has been crazy lately but I would agree with this poster. Parts of Preston country can get bad, but Garrett County is it's own animal (even nearby Cumberland usually is in significantly better shape)
Don't know about WV, but MD, for the last couple years, has begun pre-treating the roads before the snow hits. Unless it is coming down hard, the snow will melt much faster.
That salt water+ pretreatment is incredible and helps to care for the icing problem.
But seriously, everything is engineered.
Our Wv treatments are designed to eat up the wearing course of the road bed.
That way, repair and paving contracts can be a constant thing.
In other areas of the country...I"ll cite one (Madison, Wis.) where they have much worse winters than we do.
The munincipal roads are never treated because of the repair costs.
Only the federal roads are treated..(they are constantly being re-paved too, but that is a part of the summer repair program.)
That city refuses to constantly re-do their streets and many of them are concreted for that reason.
Let me mention that an untreated concrete street will last about 30+ years if done correctly, while Mcadam (or asphalt) has a life span of 10 years on a good day. Do the math.
In Wv munincipal areas, most of the streets are asphalt, are treated and by spring everything is falling apart.
There is redemption though, those potholes mean that spring is just around the corner....and that's where we will be in 5 weeks.
That's a good point. There are also differences in asphalt grades... more or less gravel content vs. bonding agent and so forth. I have noticed that Morgantown tends to preserve the concrete streets that they have with patchwork repairs rather than paving over them. That makes sense, but sometimes I think they need to replace sections more often. Marilla Park is a good example.
I remember when a lot of side roads were tar and gravel. Easy and inexpensive to repair and replace, but very messy in the short term. That seems to have fallen out of use though resulting is some rural roads that get to be in awful condition before they are repaired.
Road pavement jobs are considered to have a 20 year life.
The base course is laid down and left for 10 years..10 years later the top/wearing course is laid down. Does a road with 1/2 of the money because only half of it is constructed.
A minimum asphalt job is 2" of base material and a covering of 2" of wearing course material.
The base course uses a heavier grade stone while the top course uses a finer grade material.
And 'skip paving is the norm....that's laying down 2" of material that washes out with the first good rain.
No preparation to the under surface is usually done.
Most of that undersurface is coated with vehicle oil and nothing will adhear to it.
The best work is done when a pavement remover machine is used.
The undulating surface is a good anchor for the road coating.
This should be mandatory on all resurface jobs because it gives an even base surface and recycles the old road material.
It also means that sidewalks do not need replaced as often because of elevation issues.
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