Published September 1990 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Planning for the Future Currently, the United States is experiencing extremely difficult budget constraints. To solve our national fiscal problems, some painful choices will have to be made. In making those choices, priority consideration must be given to investing in the building and rebuilding of our nation's highways, bridges, railroads, airports, locks and dams, public water-supply and waste-disposal systems, and other facilities that make possible economic growth and development. Such facilities are critical to increasing our national productivity, meeting the challenges of foreign economic competition, and maintaining America's standard of living. Without efficient, modern, well-maintained highways, for example, goods cannot be moved economically and expeditiously to markets. The Federal highway system is particularly important. Federally supported highways currently comprise only 22 percent of our national road system, but log roughly 81 percent of all motor vehicle miles traveled per year. Realizing the importance of a modern transportation infrastructure to economic growth and prosperity, I am continuing to work for the completion of the remaining Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) corridor highways in our state: Corridor H from Buckhannon east, Corridor G between Charleston and the Kentucky line, and Corridor D near Parkersburg. Recently, as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I added a total of $206.5 million to Senate appropriation bills in slightly more than one week for West Virginia highway construction, including ARC Corridors G, H, and D, and the Weirton Bypass of Route 22 in the Northern Panhandle. Likewise, I have helped to push through funds to replace a number of locks and dams on the Ohio River, including the Gallipolis locks and dam near Point Pleasant, which is estimated to cost $345 million; to rebuild the Winfield locks and dam on the Kanawha River in Putnam County, estimated at $203 million; and to rebuild Locks 7 and 8 on the Monongahela River north of Morgantown, estimated at $266.6 million. Moreover, I helped to secure federal funds to replace the Weirton-Steubenville bridge, the Marietta-Williamstown bridge near Parkersburg, and the Sixth Street Bridge in Huntington. My aim in channeling these federal funds into West Virginia is to put into place a vital transportation infrastructure on which to create new economic and job opportunities in the years ahead. September 19, 1990