Ohio Route 7 and West Virginia Route 2 are among the most traveled roads in the Ohio Valley. They're also among the most difficult to maintain because the land they're situated on is prone to landslides and rockfalls.

A NEWS9 Special Assignment has uncovered how prevalent landslides and rockfalls are on Ohio Route 7 and West Virginia Route 2 and the preventative measures that are being implemented to minimize the dangers they pose and eliminate high-risk areas.

"(Route 7) was developed very early," said ODOT District 11 construction engineer Jim Graham. "It evolved from a horse path to a major highway -- a four-lane highway."

Graham said that Ohio has been proactive in trying to identify and eliminate problem areas over the past 20 years. As part of the effort to reduce landslides and rockfalls, Graham said ODOT implemented a geologic site management program, which identifies geologic issues and allocates funding to remedy them.

"The higher-risk sites get mitigated first," Graham said. "(That could be) a full hillside cut or a concrete barrier wall or even a lot of the rock fence that we put up years ago."

As part of the program, ODOT also began inventorying geologic hazards in each county. Graham said that figures compiled over the past 20 years or so indicate that counties along the Ohio River, including four local counties, have the most geohazards.

"We take our geologic hazards, we inventory them, we rate them, and then the ones that pose the highest risk are allocated funding," Graham said, noting that several projects in the area had been completed through the program.

Figures released by ODOT show a total of 896 landslides have been recorded in Columbiana, Jefferson, Belmont and Monroe >lowercase when plural>counties since they began keeping records around 1990. That total includes:

• 57 in Columbiana County
• 156 in Jefferson County
• 659 in Belmont County
• 24 in Monroe County

An even greater number, 1,231, of rockfalls were recorded over the same period:

• 241 in Columbiana County
• 196 in Jefferson County
• 258 in Belmont County
• 536 in Monroe County

West Virginia has also identified potential problem areas on Route 2. District 6 engineer Dan Sikora said that there are currently 400 active landslides in the six counties of the northern panhandle.

Sikora identified five locations on Route 2 in the northern panhandle that are problem areas, including:

• Marshall County narrows
• Between Weirton and Follansbee
• Between New Cumberland and Newell
• South of Moundsville
• Between Paden City and Sistersville

"We've got piling wall along Route 2 from Hancock County to Tyler County," Sikora said. "This is a rough guess, but I'd say probably 40-50 percent of that roadway has piling on it."

Graham and Sikora agree that nothing will ever eliminate the risk of landslides and rockfalls, however, both added that being proactive will greatly minimize the danger.

"The whole area, potentially, can slide at anytime," Sikora said. "That's why the maintenance is so important."

Graham added, "We will never eliminate all the sites. But we will be left with only low-risk sites."