Transportation Secretary Tom Smith said Monday that runaway inflation in highway construction costs has the department concerned as West Virginia embarks on the $2.8 billion “Roads to Prosperity” initiative.
“Those are concerning numbers when you have things escalating that far,” Smith said of reports of an 8.8 percent inflation rate for construction costs.
Those costs might have been reflected last week when bids for the first big-ticket Roads to Prosperity project, reconstruction of 7 miles of Interstate 70 in Wheeling, including 22 bridges, came in more than $100 million over the original estimated project cost of $172.5 million.