Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization image.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization (MMPO) is ready to dig into federal funding granted for the Greenbag Road Corridor project.
A $4.2 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant was awarded to the MMPO to help fund the design of the project, that would address two separate parts of Greenbag Road. The plan for the design has already been submitted on a state level and with funding, an expansion to the road is closer to a reality.
“We’re very gratified to have the grant,” said MMPO Executive Director Bill Austin. “It’s a very competitive process, as you know there was only one other of these grants recieved in the state, we’re really very appreciative of the support that everyone has putting forward to help us get this far with the project,” he said.
The design for the Greenbag Road Corridor project, includes several improvements to Greenbag Road that Austin says the MMPO has been pushing for a long time. Improvements such as the widening of lanes, expanded shoulders of the road and other traffic measures are part of the design and will be implemented on Greenbag Road from Lucky Lane, past Mississippi Street and from Lucky Lane to Decker’s Creek Boulevard. Each of these are intended to assists the heavily populated road.
“The essential improvements are to take a lot of the curbs out of Greenbag Road to make it a more user friendly road,” Austin explained what the project entails.
With the design phase granted funding, Austin says there are still several steps that need to take place before any construction is seen on Greenbag Road. This includes coordination with the West Virginia Department of Highways (DOH) to hire a consulting firm for design work, as well as a public input period and the passing of any environmental regulations. With the RAISE grant funding, the MMPO will be able to move forward with that process, so construction on Greenbag Road can begin.
“The purpose of this (RAISE grant) is to get it (Greenbag Road project) through all of those processes, so the next thing we can do is really to seek funding to implement the project,” Austin said.
The $4.2 million awarded to the MMPO via RAISE grants, will also be directed to the feasibility study of a potential off-road pedestrian pathway to Greenbag Road that would lead to the Decker’s Creek Rail Trail. For the MMPO, this is a major milestone that will allow a long sought after project, to make a move towards reality. Despite the several steps ahead of construction, Austin expects to see major progress with the help of the grants.
“It helps a long way in helping the Greenbag Road corridor completely upgraded, there’s still a lot more work to do, once you have a design you still got to get the construction funded,” he said.