Beckley, West Virginia — Turnpike travel plazas in Beckley and Bluestone, West Virginia, are on pace to be completed by the end of this year.
Members of the West Virginia Parkway Authority got an up-close look at work at the Beckley property near Tamarack on Monday as part of the authority's monthly meeting.
Managing director
jeff miller
“We're starting to see things really take shape,” Jeff Miller, executive director of the Parkways Authority, told Metro News. “They are currently working on the interior of the facility and the canopy, which I think will be symbolic for both.”
Demolition of the former Travel Plaza building began last spring. Paramount Builders, a St. Albans-based contractor, is being paid $122.8 million to rebuild the facility. Construction is expected to begin next spring at the Morton Travel Plaza in Kanawha County.
Miller said work at Bluestone in Mercer County is a little further along than the Beckley site, but he expects both to be completed by the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
“What people will find is a great facility with very bright areas, beautiful landscaping and great amenities for the traveler,” Miller said. “It’s going to be a great place for families and commercial truck drivers to pull over and feel like they’re in a safe environment.”
Miller previously told Metro News that Beckley's new travel plaza will be the centerpiece. Once complete, there will be several restaurant options, including a Wendy's, Starbucks, Popeyes, a 24-hour convenience store, and an outdoor dining option in a permanent food truck-like structure.
Miller said Beckley will also have 50 additional parking spaces for tractor trailers and 16 electric vehicle charging stations.
Miller said there was initially a lot of on-site work at both sites, including replacing fuel tanks and draining water.
“There was a ton of work that needed to be done at ground level before we could actually start construction or get to the point of any kind of vertical construction,” he said.
Miller added that the project did not incur significant additional construction costs. He approved the builder's initial bid.
“I think the contractors were very up front in their bids about what they were planning and factored in all the contingencies on their side at the beginning,” Miller said.
