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Residents of the Tri-State Area received an unexpected -- it not totally unanticipated -- early lump of coal in their Christmas stockings on Thursday when officials with the West Virginia Division of Highways closed the Market Street Bridge.
It's a decision -- which the W.Va. Department of Transportation said was made after an inspection on Wednesday -- that has left many to wonder if the bridge has finally reached the end of its useful life and just what that would mean for area residents and businesses.
The bridge has served our region well since it was opened in 1905.
Multiple rehabilitations and repairs that have been made periodically have allowed the span to continue to provide a convenient connection between downtown Steubenville and state Route 2 in West Virginia, offering easy access to and from Follansbee and Wellsburg to the south and another option to travel to and from Weirton to the north.
Questions about the continued viability of the bridge have been swirling for many decades. Those concerns deepened when West Virginia officials stated when they completed what was then expected to be the last major rehabilitation on the structure a little more than 10 years ago that their efforts would likely keep the bridge open until the then-planned Wellsburg-Brilliant bridge could be finished and offer another much-needed crossing point of the Ohio River in the 35 mile-stretch between Steubenville and Wheeling.
That new bridge was finally completed and began carrying traffic in September. However, troubling questions about the Market Street Bridge were raised just before the new span bridge opened, when officials closed the Market Street Bridge for five days for what was described as inspection and maintenance work. When the bridge reopened, its weight limit had been reduced to 3 tons, and the maximum height for vehicles was cut to 7 feet, 6 inches.
And that happened just three months before Thursday's decision to shut down the bridge completely. Unlike previous closures, West Virginia officials did not provide details of any anticipated repair work or any timetables for its completion--just a statement that an update on the status of the structure would be provided.
This isn't the first bad news about bridges in our region that we have received during this time of year. It was on Jan. 8, 2009, that a dip in the pavement on the Fort Steuben Bridge forced the closure of that structure and led the Ohio Department of Transportation to announce one week later that the bridge was no longer safe and would be permanently closed. Three years later, on Feb. 21, 2012, the bridge was spectacularly demolished through a series of controlled blasts that dropped it into the Ohio River.
And then, just a few weeks ago, W.Va. DOT ordered an emergency closing of the 46-year-old Jennings Randolph Bridge that connects East Liverpool and Chester, a move which forced drivers who were looking to cross the Ohio River to travel south to Steubenville or Weirton (depending on what side they were on) and the Veterans Memorial Bridge or north to Shippingport. Another option is the Wayne Six Toll Bridge that connects East Liverpool and Newell.
And all of this comes among the news that there is a very good possibility a new bridge can be built very near to where the Market Street Bridge now stands.
At this point, any talk about the future of the Market Street Bridge is nothing more than speculation. But West Virginia officials must be more forthcoming about the bridge than they have been. On Thursday afternoon, Charlie Reynolds, District 6 manager for the W.Va. Division of Highways, said the decision to close the bridge was made after the Wednesday inspection raised concerns about the cables that support the bridge. And Jimmy Wriston, the state's secretary of transportation, said when he saw data provided by the bridge inspection program manager Wednesday evening, a decision was made that something had to be done.
But that leaves an important question unanswered: Why, if a serious flaw was discovered, was the bridge allowed to stay open for 16 hours after the inspection was completed? Certainly anyone who used the bridge during that period deserves to know what type of risk they might have been facing -- and those involved in the decision must be held accountable.
Convenient -- and safe -- options to cross the Ohio River are critical to our region's economy and the vitality of our communities.
That's why any confusion about the status and future of the Market Street Bridge needs to be cleared up as quickly as possible, and officials must continue to work on an expedited way to build its replacement.