Orange barrels line Main Street in dowtown Wheeling as crews continue work on the $32 million Downtown Streetscape Project. Despite the massive construction zone associated with the project, officials said the contract for the work has been designed to accommodate major downtown events that utilize the streets — such as the Ogden Newspapers Wellness Weekend and the Fantasy in Lights Parade. (Photo by Eric Ayres)

WHEELING — The unavoidable amount of construction work taking place in downtown Wheeling creates somewhat of an urban challenge on its own, but officials have assured the public that traditional events taking place this summer should be minimally impacted by the myriad of work.

The biggest obstacle for motorists and pedestrians commuting through downtown Wheeling has been the streetscape project — a $32 million venture spearheaded by the West Virginia Division of Highways. The project has been years in the making and promises to bring new sidewalks, street surfaces, underground utilities, street lights, curbs, stormwater management and other upgrades along the city’s main traffic arteries.

Work on the streetscape project started out slowly, but is currently in full swing — as sidewalk demolition and reconstruction along the west side of Main Street has been buzzing with activity in recent weeks, as has storm sewer work near the intersection of Main and 16th street.

With the Ogden Newspapers Wellness Weekend presented by WVU Medicine set to fire the starting gun Saturday and Sunday and the busy schedule of events along Heritage Port already unfolding, city officials have been hit with questions about the ability for race participants and festival goers to navigate through all of the construction zones — work areas that are expected to slow traffic down over the course of the next two years as the mammoth project continues.

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the city has received a number of calls from various event organizers and sponsors regarding the Streetscape work. Although the project is under the jurisdiction of the state, the city manager regularly attends project meetings to receive the latest updates, he noted.

Herron said state officials and the general contractor for the Streetscape Project – Triton Construction of St. Albans – are aware of public activities that are scheduled to take place in the downtown area throughout the year.

“As part of the planning process for the Streetscape, the West Virginia Division of Highways asked for a list of all the various events that we have downtown, and when, typically, those events occur,” Herron reported to Wheeling City Council earlier this month. “They’ve incorporated those events into their contract with the contractor, Triton, so that arrangements will be made during those weekends that the Streetscape will move aside to the extent they can so that those events can occur.”

While many events that draw a lot of traffic to town typically take place at Heritage Port, WesBanco Arena or the Capitol Theatre, some events actually use the city streets — such as the Ogden Newspapers Half Marathon Classic, Tough as Nails Urban Challenge presented by The Health Plan and other race events, as well as the annual Fantasy in Lights Parade.

“The two that come to mind immediately are the Ogden Wellness Weekend — where they’ll be using 16th Street as well as 14th Street — and accommodations will be made so that runners can get through those areas if they are torn up, and the same thing with the Christmas parade,” Herron said. “There could be the possibility of disruption on Market Street during that time. But again, the state has indicated that they’ll make arrangements to try to get the contractor out of the way so that those events — as well as many other events that we currently have will also be able to go off without a hitch — or without much of a hitch — in the middle of a major construction project.”

Another hurdle thrown into the mix over the past year has been the closure of the Market Street Bridge downtown over Wheeling Creek. A fire from a homeless encampment that had been under the bridge caused the closure of the span between the downtown and Center Wheeling since June of last year. Officials have indicated that the deck will need to be replaced on the bridge, and it is hoped that such a project will be completed before the Fantasy in Lights Parade in November.

But the Streetscape project is expected to challenge downtown commuters through the rest of this year and through 2024, as well. While the early stages of construction hit a few snags, it is now full-steam ahead, according to the city manager.

“The Streetscape project got off to a little bit of a rocky start – which was to be expected with unknowns associated with some bump-outs, storm sewer project finding buried railroad cars, etc. – all that stuff that has happened,” Herron said. “But at least from the city’s perspective, the contractors are beginning to – and this is not an engineering term – ‘hit their stride.’ So a lot of little kinks that you find in a project of this nature in the beginning are starting to work themselves out, and I think you’re going to see significantly more production as we go through the summer and even into next year. So things are starting to progress a little bit better after kind of a slow start.”