Beckley Travel Plaza to close Wednesday; travelers shifted to Tamarack

Jan. 30—Travelers accustomed to making a pit stop at the Beckley Travel Plaza will have to make a small detour starting Wednesday to access typical travel amenities.

The Beckley Travel Plaza will close Wednesday, Feb. 1, ahead of scheduled demolition, which will make way for a new multi-million-dollar travel plaza.

While construction takes place at the Beckley Travel Plaza, motorists will be directed up the road to the Tamarack Marketplace, which is being upgraded to accommodate the needs of visitors.

Tamarack Marketing Director AJ Dennison said a new shop will be added inside Tamarack called the Country Roads Market, which will offer many of the items visitors would typically expect to see at the travel plaza.

"It's kind of a small section that we have kind of set aside to sell the things you might find at the travel plaza now ... we're trying to offer some of those things so that they don't miss it," Dennison said.

The fueling station next to the travel plaza will not be impacted by the ongoing construction and will remain open through completion of the project, which is expected to be late 2024.

Dennison said Tamarack typically only sells West Virginia-made products but the Country Roads Market will be stocked with things like energy drinks, soda, candy bars, phone chargers, headphones and over-the-counter medications.

Dennison said Tamarack would try to focus on local candy makers, breweries and vineyards, "but we're also going to have those essentials that the travel plaza was providing," he said.

The Country Roads Market will be located to the right of Tamarack's front entrance — in the same direction as the bathrooms and right across from the restaurant area.

"We put it there so it was really conveniently close to the restrooms," Dennison said. "We're trying to keep the busy travelers in mind. Convenience is the goal. They can stop, use the restrooms, get their essential items, get out the door and do it rather quickly."

Tamarack's restrooms have also been renovated in anticipation of the plaza's closure.

Tamarack Marketplace is open every day except Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

However, those hours will expand starting April 1, when the facility will be open seven days a week from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.

On average, Dennison said roughly half a million people come through Tamarack each year. With the closure of the travel plaza, Dennison said that number be could double or even triple for 2023 and 2024.

"We're hoping, just by numbers, the more new visitors we get, the more of a traditional stop Tamarack becomes," he said. "And more people in here means more items bought, more of the artists getting known and recognized or discovered."

The state is expected to spend $152 million in completely redeveloping the Beckley Travel Plaza, the Bluestone Travel Plaza and the Morton Travel Plaza near Burnwell.

The Bluestone Travel Plaza will also close Feb. 1 to undergo similar redevelopment.