The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

December 1, 2008

West Virginia Turnpike loses $3.1 million in 13 months

By Mannix Porterfield

Hard times are hitting the West Virginia Turnpike where it hurts the worst — at the tollbooths.

In the past 13 months, the Princeton-to-Charleston toll road has lost $3,192,000 in tolls, and even with a higher-than-expected turnout Thanksgiving weekend, it suffered another $430,000 setback for the past month.

Through October, losses were pegged at $2,760,000, or a decline of 4.8 percent contrasted with the same period a year ago, Manager Greg Barr said Monday.

“That’s a big hit,” he said. “A big hit.”

Based on predictions issued by AAA and other travel groups, Barr said his staff braced for a loss of 5 to 6 percent over the long Thanksgiving weekend, normally the busiest time of year for the Turnpike.

Revenues taken in Tuesday through Sunday were off 2.2 percent when compared with the Thanksgiving period last year, the manager said.

“After Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we were actually down about 5.4 percent, so we thought, ‘well, there you go,’ but Friday, Saturday and Sunday made a little comeback, and we ended up only down 2.2 percent,” Barr said.

All told, some 733,000 motorists passed through the tollbooths over the six-day span, while the number stood at 749,000 in 2007, he noted.

Wednesday witnessed about 170,000 transactions, but the number dipped to 168,000 on the final day of the holiday period.

“Sunday usually causes us bigger issues because the traffic is all compacted into a shorter period of time,” Barr said.

“That could create issues at plazas. This year, we handled it pretty well.”

Sunday’s rainfall figured into a rash of minor accidents, including one on the north end that delayed movement for some time, he said.

A wreck in Virginia on one side of a tunnel prompted a surge once traffic was released, creating a backup at the Ghent plaza.

Lower gas prices likely figured into the smaller-than-anticipated loss this Thanksgiving period. In the Beckley area, prices at the pumps fell below $2.

“There were several things working against traffic,” Barr said.

“One was the higher fuel price but the other was just the recession, the sagging economy and retrenching of everyone losing all their retirement money on Wall Street and everything else going on. That, of course, affects traffic. I think lower fuel prices made a dent in that retrenchment over the economy and caused the decline to not be as much as it otherwise would have been. When you fill up your tank and you’ve got an extra $25 left in your wallet, it makes you feel a little bit better. You can eat out a couple of more times that week.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

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