GHENT, WV (WVNS) — Multiple projects are included in a bid letting held by the West Virginia Division of Highways on September 12, 2023, including a project to fix a sinkhole on WV 20 in Hinton.
Bonds that are sold through Governor Jim Justice’s $2.8 billion Roads to Prosperity program will help fund the project.
The sinkhole that formed by WV 20 near the Hinton Police Department in June 2022 when an old underground drainage structure collapsed was temporarily fixed when work crews with the WVDOH installed a temporary drainage structure and filled the hole in, however the temporary repairs were washed away in November 2022 by heavy rain.
A temporary bridge was installed, and in January 2023 WVDOH crews filled the sinkhole with a large amount of dirt and rock that could fill an Olympic sized swimming pool until a permanent repair could be done.
A new hole will be drilled under WV 20 by contractors so that a new drainage pipe can be installed to carry Brier Branch under the road when the project is finally awarded.
This will be a permanent rerouting of the stream and a closure of the old drainage structure. It’s a permanent fix.
Joe Pack | P.E., WVDOH Chief Engineer of Operations
When the permanent repairs are finished, the temporary bridge will be removed, and then WV 20 will be repaved.
July 11 letting projects include:
- WV 20 paving, Bluestone Lake to Hinton. (Summers County)
- Hinton Brier Branch Culvert replacement, Hinton. (Summers County) (Roads to Prosperity)
- WV 112 paving, Ingleside to Oakvale. (Mercer County)
- US 219 paving, Lillydale Back Creek to Bud Ridge. (Monroe County)
- Harper Road traffic signals. (Raleigh County)
- Harper Road paving. (Raleigh County)
- WV 97 paving, Saulsville to Maben. (Wyoming County)
