Officials in the city of Wheeling are also moving forward with legislation this week to help downtown businesses that are being affected by the unavoidable construction.

W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice was on hand in late September for a groundbreaking ceremony designating the launch of the long-awaited $32 million-plus project. It didn’t take long before orange barrels popped up around the downtown to signify that Streetscape work was already well underway.

Work is expected to continue for the next two years into late 2024. Between now and then, the city’s primary downtown traffic arteries of Main and Market streets – along with some connecting streets – will get new sidewalks, curbs, ADA-compliant curb cuts and intersections, trees and landscaping, street lights and traffic signals, storm sewer management systems, street pavement and more.

Triton Construction Inc. of St. Albans, W.Va., was awarded the general contract for the Streetscape project. Triton established a staging area and on-site construction trailer in the parking lot of the former Wheeling Inn hotel, and the company and its subcontractors have begun work primarily in various spots on the north end of Main Street. Several sections of sidewalks have already been removed, and some areas that provide on-street parking have been temporarily shut down with one lane of Main Street traffic closed.

“It’s a very dynamic and complex project,” City Manager Robert Herron said following a construction meeting on Friday. “They’ve got to move around quite a bit.”

So far, the majority of areas affected by work have been in front of empty storefronts and locations that have little direct impact on adjacent commerce. Some businesses, however, have already experienced some challenges.

“It’s just harder for people to get downtown,” said Joe Beers, general manager of the Bridge Tavern & Grill, which had been surrounded by orange barrels and cones for the past month while crews worked on underground utilities in front of the restaurant.

During most of February, a section of 10^th Street between Main and Market streets near the restaurant was closed to traffic. Just recently, the large opening in the street in front of the building was closed up again, and the street was reopened. However, Beers said they were informed that 10^th Street is expected to close again in the future as part of the project.

The Bridge Tavern & Grill posted photos of the beehive of construction activity on its social media, exclaiming “Uncle!” and announcing that “after a hard assessment of all things considered, we have decided to suspend our Sunday brunch for the foreseeable future.”

On Friday, Beers said that although 10^th Street has reopened, Sunday brunch will remain on the back burner for now, but it will return.

“We don’t have it right now,” he said. “We’re planning renovations of our own here in the future, and 10^th Street is supposed to close again some time,” said Beers, noting that the business has been kept in the loop about the construction activity. “Work crews that have been coming in have been very nice. We’re actually thrilled at what’s happening, because we’re all excited about the final outcome.”

Parking has already been an issue for many downtown businesses that rely primarily on metered parking directly on the street outside of their storefronts. Lane closures and sidewalk demolition has temporarily eliminated some of the on-street parking options.

“We hate the disruption to the already strained downtown parking situation, but we love progress, love the scope of the project and love our clients for pushing through the cones and closures to come to our amazing wellness spa,” Jessica Barclay, co-owner of ThrIVe Wheeling at 1052 Main St., said. “Business is better than ever, and our client base is highly committed, as we are, to downtown revitalization.”

Construction on the Streetscape project has made its way across the street from ThrIVe. Other local business owners who are expected to soon be impacted by the Streetscape work were also optimistic about the end result of the highly anticipated project.

“I like to take a positive approach,” said State Farm agent Laura Mull, whose office is at 1111 Main St. “You’ve got to take the short-term pain to get the long-term gain, they say.”

Work has not yet begun in Mull’s block, but she can see it coming.

“I was looking at it today and realized that – oh my gosh – it’s fast approaching,” she said. “My customers have a tricky time parking anyway, and we usually only get a couple of them in at a time.”

Mull said they do have an alternate parking area in the lot across the street, and they plan to tell customers who have an appointment to use alternate parking when the construction hits their block.

But not all businesses in the line of fire have gotten word about when the jackhammers and other heavy equipment will setting up in front of their storefronts – including the State Farm office and neighboring Mugshots coffee shop at 1109 Main St.

“I look forward to all of the work being done,” said Grant Coleman, owner of Mugshots, noting that he definitely understands the inevitability of the looming inconvenience. “It definitely will be nice to known in advance – for planning purposes – what’s going on and when it will be here.”

Coleman noted that he had been informed that state representatives from the West Virginia Division of Highways or contractors on the Streetscape project are supposed to reach out before the construction makes its way to their door.

“We’ve not heard from them yet,” he said. “It is a necessary evil. I just want to be prepared. We have to do prep work, I have to schedule staff – one day’s worth of revenue is huge, so the better the communication is, the better we can prepare.”

Because of the expected impact the Downtown Streetscape Project is expected to have to scores of downtown businesses over the course of the next two years, Wheeling City Council plans to introduce legislation Tuesday night authorizing a one-time exemption of the city’s Business License Free for businesses in certain affected areas downtown.

The Streetscape is not the only major, multimillion-dollar project taking place downtown at the moment, either, and the array of construction sites add to the current challenges that are expected to lead to future improvements in the city.

Construction continues on Woda-Cooper Companies’ new Doris on Main apartment complex on the upper portion of Main Street, where masonry work on the exterior of the new structure has been taking place, taking the sidewalk out of use and resulting in a one-lane tunnel of orange cones and barrels greeting motorists entering the downtown area from Interstate 70.

A flurry of activity has been taking place around the new Market Street Parking Garage, which had a massive 500-yard concrete pour last week. A portion of Market Street and the sidewalk on the east side of the street have been closed while construction on the new six-deck parking structure continues. The section of 11th Street has also been closed to automobile traffic, with some limited pedestrian access. However, most of the storefronts along this affected stretch of 11th Street are currently vacant.