Agency says signs at 611 locations cost more than $350,000 over last 10 years
By Matt Murphy
Staff writer
They name bridges. They name highways. They name interchanges. They name intersections. They name turning lanes.
Over the past two decades, the West Virginia Legislature has taken to the practice of naming various pieces of highway infrastructure after everyday citizens, other politicians, athletes, celebrities and most often, members of the U.S. military.
Namings range from the Walter A. Akers Memorial Intersection in Mingo County to the Neil E. Bolyard "Tippy" Buck Turning Lane in Morgantown.
Bridges and infrastructure namings usually are brainstormed at the local level, either by citizens or local government officials. The requests are then passed on to delegates and senators, who move the proposal through the legislative process as a concurrent resolution.
There may be a political element, too.
In the last 10 years, the number of bridge and infrastructure namings jumps every election year.
For example, 2005 saw 11 successful namings, while 2006 saw 62. In 2007, the Legislature name 24 bridges, while in 2008, 45 were named, according to figures from the state Department of Transportation.
The pattern is repeated through 2012.
In addition, resolutions naming bridges are rarely sponsored by just one delegate or senator. Instead, a number of legislators latch on to namings, even if they don't live in the district in which the bridge falls.
In 2014 while running for Congress, then Sen. Evan Jenkins was a co-sponsor to nearly every bridge naming in the 3rd Congressional District.
In all, Jenkins cosponsored 29 infrastructure namings, and all but one was outside the district he represented. Of those, 10 were ultimately successful.
Other times, groups of politicians will co-sponsor numerous namings.
While naming bridges has been commonplace across the country for many years, such namings were often limited to major public works.
In West Virginia, bridge namings weren't all that common until the 1990s, when the practice started to ramp up.
By 2001, 161 bridges had been named in West Virginia, according to a Charleston Daily Mail article that year.
At the time, the 18 total bridge namings in 2001 were considered to be a feat of politics.
But that was child's play compared to the Legislature a decade later.
In 2011 alone, the Legislature named 70 bridges and pieces of infrastructure. Delegates and senators then proceeded to name 92 bridges in 2012 and 95 bridges in 2013.
The Legislature took a naming breather in 2014 with 70 bridges and only named 40 structures this year.
Those figures don't reflect the total number of proposed namings, which have numbered more than 100 per year.
For every sign, though, there's a price, and the state Department of Transportation is charged with funding such namings.
The department estimates it has cost more than $350,000 to create and install signs at 611 pieces of infrastructure over the last 10 years.
Department of Transportation spokeswoman Carrie Bly said the agency frequently gets misdirected requests from the public asking to name road infrastructure after a friend or relative.
While she noted the number of things being named continues to increase, she said some of the signs are appreciated by residents.
After West Virginia installed signs recognizing military members along interstates at state borders, Bly said she received an appreciative call from a man affiliated with a military group.
"That just really meant a lot to him," she said. "It really touched that group."