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DOH, City Officials Mull Options For Wheeling Suspension Bridge

City of Wheeling officials, from left: City Manager Robert Herron, Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, Vice Mayor Chad Thalman and Assistant City Manager William Lanham II walk across the 170-year-old Wheeling Suspension Bridge Monday, as West Virginia Department of Highways officials follow close behind.

WHEELING — State highway officials on Monday told city officials they will keep the 170-year-old Wheeling Suspension Bridge closed for another month as they make repairs and improvements after a tour bus went across the span more than a month ago.

Along with making structural repairs, one of the plans the state will enact will be to put a hard barrier at the bridge’s entrances downtown and on Wheeling Island. This would stop vehicles such as dump trucks and tour buses from crossing the span.

Wheeling leaders met with West Virginia Division of Highways officials at the City-County Building to discuss the bridge’s future.

Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott and City Manager Robert Herron said the bridge will continue to be closed to motorists while DOH officials make repairs to the bridge after the charter bus that exceeded the two-ton weight limit drove across the span more June 29 and compromised its integrity.

In addition, it will allow the DOH to install “hard barriers” at both ends of the structure. The structure will remain open to pedestrians.

“Basically we looked over some inspection reports and since that incident happened there has been some damage identified to the bridge, especially the ‘stay cables’ on the island side … there’s some damage there that wasn’t there before the bus incident according to recent photos they have,” Elliott explained. “So based on that, they have taken the position they can not open the bridge without some hard restraint to keep larger vehicles off the bridge. So we’re going to look at some short term options at hard restraints.”

He said the restraints would be set up at both ends of the bridge where signs currently hang approximately eight feet above the entrances.

Following a meeting with DOH officials, including current DOH District 6 Engineer David Brabham, Elliott, Herron, Assistant City Manager William Lanham II and Vice Mayor Chad Thalman walked across the 170-year-old historic structure with DOH officials, looking over areas of concern, including cables and the Main Street entrance to the bridge.

Elliott said DOH officials expressed their concerns about another bus-type incident happening in the future without changes. He said they are currently in the process of deciding on a “hard restraint” and installing it in the coming weeks. He added they’re trying to alleviate concerns from state and local historical groups about changing the appearance of the bridge.

“What we’re telling them is, ‘for the short term whatever hard restraint you can get up there quickly is fine, but we want a long term commitment though to whatever restraint is going to be up there is going to be done in a way that actually works for the bridge architecturally,” Elliott said.

Elliott said in the meantime they will continue to examine other options, such as possibly putting tolls and/or weigh stations at both ends of the bridge in the future. He said another idea is to install cameras to be able to ticket motorists who violate the weight limits in place. Elliott said closing the bridge is still viewed as being “a last resort.” He said it is very important for the residents of Wheeling Island to have access to the span.

“So we are looking at all of the above options, both to reduce the demand for bridge usage and to prevent larger vehicles from crossing,” he added. “The bridge is scheduled to be completely rehabed in 2021. We’re going to emphasize that stay on track.”

Elliott said city and state officials want to do whatever they can to at least keep the bridge open for cars that don’t exceed the weight limit for years to come if at all possible.

Herron echoed much of what Elliott had to stay, expressing his concern for keeping heavy traffic off the bridge.

“The focus in the short term is taking steps to ensure that oversized and overweight vehicles do not cross the bridge,” Herron commented.

He said the they were informed the structure receive some damage as a result of the bus crossing the structure on June 29.

“We are aware of what that damage is, the (state) is aware of it and that can be taken care of, but the key is we don’t want any further damage. … So the Department of Highways is going to take the steps to put up hard barriers so that oversized vehicles do not cross the structure,” he said.

Herron added city officials will notify any necessary or affected city departments about the time-frame for the temporary closure.

“We have a pretty good idea to what that’s going to be and we’ll plan accordingly, he added.

The span was closed the evening of June 29 after a Pennsylvania-based Lenzner Tour and Travel/Coach USA bus crossed the structure. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation indicates that a loaded bus of that size may weigh up to 20 tons, which far exceeds the span’s two-ton weight limit. The driver of the bus was cited by Wheeling Police for driving an overweight vehicle across the structure and failure to maintain a traffic control device.

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