WHEELING, W.Va. — While Mayor Glenn Elliott expressed some disappointment in the West Virginia Division of Highways’ decision to reject his request to reopen the Suspension Bridge, he understands it’s ultimately their call.
Elliott and the city of Wheeling received a letter Monday afternoon from Secretary of Transportation Byrd White stating that the division will keep the historic bridge closed to vehicular traffic “until a permanent solution can be developed.”
“The Division of Highways (DOH) is in control, it’s their responsibility, if anything happens to that bridge it’s going to be on them,” Elliott said on Wednesday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline.’ “I understand that.”
“I don’t think they recognized the significance of that bridge culturally and logistically for the people who live on Wheeling Island.”
In early October, Elliott penned a letter to the DOH to reopen the bridge safely without compromising its structural integrity. In September, White announced the bridge would be “closed for the foreseeable future” due to structural and safety concerns.
Elliott met with leaders and engineers of the state Department of Transportation (DOT) in July, a few weeks after an overweight bus incident caused heavy damage to cables on the bridge forcing it to be close.
At that meeting, the DOT took in many ideas from the city and decided to install lower barriers to the bridge and try to eliminate overweight vehicles using it, keeping the bridge open.
Following more overweight traffic using the bridge, disregarding the new barriers, White decided to shut it down.
“Bridge engineers at the time thought all those ideas were worth consideration,” Elliott said of July meeting.
“Then fast forward to the end of September, I got a call from the Secretary of Transportation saying they were going to close the bridge. We wrote a letter back saying ‘please before you make this decision to permanently keep the bridge closed for the foreseeable future, could you at least make sure you’ve looked at these options that we had suggested.”
Included in the letter from Elliott to DOH two weeks ago included a minimal toll to avert traffic and GPS systems from using the bridge, regulated weight stations with a mechanism to let a vehicle go through if underweight, “soft-restraint” bars that would hit vehicles over a certain height, enforcement cameras, and limitations to cars only.
.@MayorWheeling talks with @HoppyKercheval about the continued closure of the Wheeling island suspension bridge and the traffic issues that Wheeling currently faces. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/acVmvIKBuV
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) October 30, 2019
The national landmark that connects Wheeling Island and downtown while sitting parallel to the Fort Henry Bridge on Interstate-70 is now only open to pedestrians and bicycles. The Fort Henry Bridge is down to one lane each way for months ahead due to the I-70 Bridges Project while an alternative route on Interstate-470 is being worked on and is closed at nights.
Elliott said while it may cause headaches now, he believes all the work going on in the Ohio County, Wheeling area is all worth it in the end.
“The condition of our state roads and bridges have been deplorable so it’s good that the work is happening,” he said. “Maybe you can question whether it all should be happening the way it’s happening at once. At the end of the day, in a couple of years, we are going to have a much better road system to be proud of but we’re going to have to get through some tough times.”
The Suspension Bridge is due for a multi-million dollar rehabilitation project that could be put to use in 2021.