Most of my travels on State Route 279 in the past couple of years primarily stretch from the United Hospital Center and White Oaks entrances to the main entry area of Charles Pointe or the on and off ramps involving Route 131. The section of road there, in comparison, to the rest of Route 279 isn’t all that bad.

 

Could it be better? Of course; nothing’s better than a fresh coat of asphalt on a roadway to make for a better drive.

 

With that in mind, for the past year – and even prior to that – whenever we did any story on Connect-Bridgeport relating to any type of paving or road project, there were always a few random comments thrown in about Route 279. The comments were always about how bad the road was and that it needed immediate attention.

 

The comments weren’t over the top, which occasionally happens, so they stood on the Web site, Facebook page, Twitter and other outlets. Recently, several comments were made that jogged my memory about the local concern so yours truly decided to hop into the vehicle and head out to 279 and go the entire length of the still relatively new roadway.  I would have actually done it earlier and given you a full report of what transpired, but had left messages with a few different folks at the WVDOH and hadn’t heard back in the last few weeks.

 

On Wednesday, I was directed to and left a message with District 4 Construction Engineer Jason Nelson and when I hadn’t heard back by the end of the standard work day I decided to make my trip. As it turns out, I probably should have waited as Nelson has ALWAYS returned calls. And he did – just not that day. Lesson here: Call him first.

 

You see, from this point forward I wrote a blog about how poor the road is and there appeared to be some base failure in areas from U.S.  Route 50 all the way to the area where there are on and off ramps leading to State Route 131. I even explained that as bad as it was, this year the DOH probably had roads even worse following our recent brutal winter and limited funds statewide to address.

 

I was going to even tell you how you work your delegates, the state DOH office and have the City of Bridgeport lobby on your behalf to help get the paving done. As it turns out, I just should have waited and wouldn’t have had to delete everything from this point forward – including my catchy “the squeaky wheel gets the asphalt” line.

 

I digress.

 

When I got ahold of Nelson Thursday, as usual, he gave me the complete 411 on State Route 279 or Jerry Dove Drive as it is most often referred to.

 

As it turns out, there’s a case of bad news and case of good news. And since giving the good news would make the bad news moot, here’s the bad news: There is no late-season paving scheduled for 2014 on Jerry Dove Drive.

 

The good news – drum roll please – is that come Nov. 18 of this year, bids will actually be opened for the fresh paving of Jerry Dove Drive. In fact, Nelson said that the request for bids is already out there.

 

“Since the bid opening is Nov. 18 that means it is part of next year’s paving schedule. I want to be sure to let you know that sometimes things changes, sometimes in a major way, with these paving projects before they go to contract. It’s rare, but it does happen so it’s not 100 percent,” Nelson said. “At the same time, this means it’s almost certainly going to happen barring something highly unusual.”

 

Not only will there be paving done, but there will be also work on sections of the road that are experiencing base failure. The work, according to the bid documents that are out, is to be completed by July 31, 2015.

 

“It’s going from the intersection of (Route) 50 to an area just shy of that road’s intersection with (Interstate) 79,” said Nelson.

 

What that means is that basically the entire road will be paved. That includes the section from Route 131 all the way up to I-79, which after my recent road trip appeared to still be in pretty good shape.

 

“The fact that (Jerry Dove Drive) is on the list means that it’s in need of repair. A lot of people don’t remember, but the worst part of that road actually was completed and sat without being open to traffic for maybe a year or two,” said Nelson. “That’s not a good thing for a road, but hopefully this paving will take care of it. I’ll personally be glad to see it fixed because it’s one I’m on every day.”

 

So there you go. It’s not perfect news, but it’s pretty good and well above average news. This time next year, barring those unusual circumstances Nelson referred to, all should literally be going smoothly along Jerry Dove Drive.