MILLER

Following months of championing the expansion of Interstate 68 from Morgantown to Moundsville, former Marshall County Commissioner Bob Miller is now the executive director of the West Virginia Route 2/I-68 Authority.

Board members last week selected Miller for the job. He succeeds state Sen. Charles Clements, R-W.Va., who now is chairman of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Miller has met with Trump Administration officials in Washington about the I-68 expansion, and discussed plans for funding the project. He also has pushed the West Virginia Legislature to pass legislation to allow county governments to take on road projects in partnership with state highway agencies, which would maintain ownership and upkeep on the road. The measure was never passed into law.

Miller was defeated for re-election in November by then Delegate Mike Ferro, D-Marshall.

“I’m really glad to have this job,” he said. “My greatest fear is that when I didn’t win, I would lose the contacts with the White House I had worked so hard to get.

“I contacted the White House, and asked them, ‘Am I going to be able to continue?’ They told me no. They have to work with governmental people.”

The West Virginia Route 2/I-68 Authority was sanctioned by the West Virginia Legislature in 1997, making it an official government agency. Its role does not include daily maintenance, but instead involves lobbying and organizing groups for long-term projects involving W.Va. 2 and I-68.

“I’m going to have to widen my scope from just I-68,” Miller said. “The board hasn’t put any restraints on me, and I can proceed the best way I can. ”

The expansion of I-68 has been proposed for over 30 years, according to Miller. The work comes with an estimated price tag of over $1 billion.

“At that time, it seemed like a natural flow from Morgantown,” he said. “The original vision was to extend I-68 to I-77 (at Marietta, Ohio), but they couldn’t justify the expense.

“Today it is a different world in between. We didn’t have the need to access the phenomenal amount of natural gas sitting under us. And as activities grow over the next generations, we will need a way to transport it.”