Gov. Joe Manchin has met with Sen. Robert C. Byrd's top aides and briefed them on the state's financial condition.

The governor also provided an update on state highway projects during a visit to Byrd's office Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Manchin also spoke by telephone with the senator, who is recuperating at home from a recent illness.

Manchin traveled to Washington with state Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox and state Highway Engineer Marvin Murphy. Manchin says Byrd had asked for an update on the state's highway needs and other pressing issues.

A new report released Wednesday says West Virginia will need to find $5 billion over the next ten years to keep its roads and bridges from falling into further disrepair.

TRIP, a nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based transportation research group, says in a report that eight percent of the state's roads are in poor condition and 29 percent are in mediocre condition.

Additionally, the report says 15 percent of bridges 20 feet or longer are structurally deficient and another 22 percent are functionally obsolete.

West Virginians for Better Transportation, a statewide group seeking new ways to fund road maintenance, says the report is a wakeup call.

While in the nation's capital, Manchin took his oath as a member of the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation Board of Trustees. The foundation's goal is to improve teaching about the U.S. Constitution in secondary schools.