It's been 16 months since a fire underneath the Market Street Bridge caused by a homeless encampment forced the structure to close. That closure has caused a hassle for motorists and others. Highways officials in West Virginia have a plan to get it reopened soon, but its closure is causing an even bigger impact locally with the annual Main Street Bank Fantasy in Lights Parade.
With the Downtown Streetscape project in full swing, it has been clear that the parade route could not travel through the heart of the central business district, as it has for decades. But a route that could have worked -- starting in Center Wheeling, crossing the Market Street Bridge and then turning west onto 16th Street and then through Center Wheeling on Main Street -- had to be scrapped after the state Division of Highways said the bridge could not be used at all this year.
Instead, the parade now could follow this route, according to parade chairman Bill Bryson: staging along Market Street between 20th and 23rd streets, and from there, instead of proceeding north, the parade will move south along Market Street through Centre Market.
Bryson said the route will likely turn from Market Street to Main Street at either the 24th or 26th street intersections, and then head north on Main Street toward downtown, passing Main Street Bank and ending at 20th Street.
"It should be a straight shot down Main Street -- flat, and no hills," Bryson said. "Hopefully, this is only a one-year shot. This year we can't go past 20th Street. We have to stay south of 20th Street."
The parade route this year will be less than 1 mile. This marks the fourth consecutive year the parade has seen changes. COVID-19 impacted the 2020 and 2021 events, and last year, the parade route had to be changed to accommodate construction.
Again, some of this could have been alleviated if the DOH had moved in the past 16 months on the Market Street Bridge. As we've noted previously, having that bridge closed leads to concerns with getting traffic out of downtown, as it is only one of three access points heading south.
Let us hope it is reopened soon.