Plans are back on course to open a US$17.6m (13m euro, £8.8m) interactive state museum in Charleston, West Virginia.

The project was threatened after it was revealed that cost estimates for the museum have nearly tripled from the originally proposed $6m (4.4m euro, £3m)in 1998.

However, according to the town’s culture and history commissioner, Randall Reid-Smith, new funding has brought the total grants received within US$3m (2.2m euro, £1.5m) of full funding.

The museum will feature an interactive “show path”, taking visitors from prehistoric to present-day West Virginia, along with 29 discovery rooms, featuring displays and artifacts from specific events in state history.