If you're driving to the fair, it's difficult not to notice what is going on on route 14, as construction continues on the rerouted 14 at Mineral Wells.

This has been the summer of construction in our area. and, at least in the fair's first day, there were some traffic tie-ups.

"Part of it is that people like to see what's going on, and that slows things down," says Rusty Roten, District 3 Engineer, West Virginia Division of Highways. "And when the fair was getting ready to start up, there were some issues with traffic backup. I think we have those resolved."

The same holds true for 77 at route 2, where a major highway expansion has been under way since spring. Route 14 was delayed earlier this year due to problems with one of the supports for the project's bridge. but the weather caused delays in both cases.

"It probably set us back a couple of weeks," Roten says. "And (Tuesday's) storms hit route 2 hard, and did a lot of damage to the subgrade. So those things are being corrected."

And a third major project is renovation work by the city of Parkersburg on the Memorial Toll Bridge. The public works department says that will be shut down completely at the end of this month, while an expansion joint is replaced.