Taking the long way around; Residents must detour around condemned bridge; repairs expected in 2010

Taking the long way around; Residents must detour around condemned bridge; repairs expected in 2010  

Publication: The Charleston Gazette
Release Date: 07/03/08
Contact: Rusty Marks

Normally, Kimberly Moss drives from her home on Allen Fork Road near Sissonville, hangs a right on W.Va. 21 and drives a short distance to the Haines Branch exit of Interstate 77 for the 20-minute commute to her job at CAMC Women and Children's Hospital in Charleston.

That changed about a month ago, when state highway officials closed the Fishers Chapel Bridge.

Now residents of Allen Fork and Middle Fork face a lengthy detour to the Goldtown exit before they can get on the interstate.

"It's six miles up and six miles back, so it's 12 miles a day," Moss said Wednesday. "We're put out, but no one cares. It's extra money for us that we don't have."

Highway officials said the bridge was closed because it had deteriorated so much that it was no longer safe for traffic. Bids for replacing the span are expected to go out in August. But Brent Walker, assistant director of communications for the state Department of Transportation in Charleston, said it could be 2010 before the bridge can be replaced.

"Unfortunately, that's what we have to do to provide safe access in the future," Walker said.

Moss thinks 2010 is too long to wait for a replacement for the bridge, which local people know as the Middle Fork Bridge. Neighbors are passing out fliers urging local residents to call state highway officials in Parkersburg to complain about the timetable.

Officials in Parkersburg are in charge of bridges in the area, but Moss has also called officials in Charleston about the bridge. Moss wants to know if a temporary structure can be built so local residents can still get to the Haines Branch exit.

"It's been a month and they haven't done the first thing to it," she said. "We want them to work with us and fix it so we can get to work."

For Moss, the last straw was on Monday, when she was late to work because work crews for West Virginia Paving Inc. were paving W.Va. 21 between the Goldtown exit and the bridge. "I work at the hospital, and we're not allowed to be late," she said.

Moss finds it ironic that the road is being paved to a bridge no one can use. She finds it even more ironic that West Virginia Paving work crews apparently drive their vehicles across the condemned span.

On Monday, Moss' son Nathan photographed West Virginia Paving trucks and a backhoe on the bridge. Paving crews had apparently moved concrete barricades blocking the bridge so they could cross it.

"Why is it safe for them to be on the bridge if it isn't safe for the public?" Kimberly Moss asked.

Walker said paving crews should not have been on the bridge.

"Once we close a bridge we don't condone anybody, or any vehicle, moving the barricades and crossing the bridge," he said. "It's illegal.

"They're taking life and limb in their own hands."

Bob Brookover, general superintendent for West Virginia Paving in Dunbar, said he wasn't sure why paving vehicles were on the bridge. But he thought it was probably safe for the trucks to be on the span.

"If the bridge is in that bad of shape that it can't hold the weight of a pickup truck we've got some serious problems in the state of West Virginia," he said.

Brookover said he would find out why West Virginia Paving trucks were on the bridge.

Reach Rusty Marks at rustyma...@wvgazette.com or 348-1215.