Route 340 closure — transparency absent
The West Virginia Division of Highways (DOH) announced two years ago that a portion of U.S. Route 340 would be closed for a three-month period, which finally began on September 12.
The now-closed part of Route 340 is along the southeast side of the Shenandoah River at Harpers Ferry (the part “between the bridges”). Loose rock high on the cliff above the roadway necessitated the closure. Traffic has been re-routed via Virginia Route 671 and Virginia/West Virginia Route 9 — a 17-mile detour.
The decision to close the road was made after a poorly publicized (and therefore lightly attended) public meeting. I was a member of the House of Delegates at the time. No state legislators representing Jefferson County were informed of the meeting, before the public announcement.
The Legislature was in session when the announcement came, and Senator Patricia Rucker asked DOH to meet with the Jefferson County legislative delegation regarding the plan. At the meeting, Senator Rucker and I strongly suggested that the decision be held in abeyance until more public meetings could be held. She and I each suggested possible alternatives.
But DOH said the plan was a “done deal,” as the contract had already been signed.
We now have a disastrous mess. Traffic is jammed even more than usual at Harpers Ferry, and is now jammed at Shepherdstown, as well as several places in Maryland and Virginia.
Years ago, DOH announced plans to complete the four-laning of Route 340 between Charles Town and Berryville, Va. Were this already done, I think the traffic jam resulting from the current closure at Harpers Ferry would be eased somewhat, as some additional commuters to and from Dulles Airport would go by way of Berryville.
To compound the situation in Shepherdstown, DOH decided to do “milling” (particularly intense resurfacing) work on the streets of Shepherdstown, during the enhanced traffic resulting from Route 340’s closure. And DOH failed to inform Shepherdstown’s government about the work. The town found out about it from the contractor.
You might ask why DOH scheduled this milling work during the Route 340 closure? Apparently, DOH thought Shepherdstown would not be effected by the work.
All this work is necessary, but so is communication. Transparency facilitates two-way communication, and the lack thereof damages the citizenry and makes for bad government. Lack of transparency has become a mark of West Virginia’s state government, particularly so under the administration of Governor Jim Justice.
For much of the time I served in the Legislature, DOH would inform local officials about upcoming highway work and would leave local legislators in the dark. I considered this to be insufficient transparency, and would each time object and get an apology. But the behavior never changed.
Now there is even less transparency, as even local officials are often not given necessary information on their work. And this failure to inform is not restricted to DOH. The Department of Health and Human Resources, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Public Service Commission are particularly prone to keeping information close to their chests.
Direction in the executive branch of government comes from the top. Until we get a governor who strongly believes in transparency, we the people will continue to be mushrooms.
John Doyle is a 26-year former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. He can be reached at rjohndoyle@comcast.net.