After Day of Revelry, Wellsburg-Brilliant Bridge Opens
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WELLSBURG -- Among the hundreds who turned out Wednesday to get a closer look at the new Ohio River bridge between the southern ends of Brooke and Jefferson counties was John Brown, former executive director of the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission.
"I wanted to make sure it was real," joked Brown, who headed the planning commission when it launched two studies, in 2000 and 2003, that found need for a new river crossing in that area between the counties and after naming the proposed span its top transportation priority, lobbied with others for federal and state money.
Brown noted talk of a new bridge can be traced to 1997 for the planning commission but occurred many years before that with other groups.
"It was a big regional effort. Who do you congratulate? There's a list of many people," he said, noting public officials and residents on both sides of the river pushed for the new transportation artery.
"There are so many heroes. How do you name one?" asked Brown.
In addressing the many gathered for a ribbon cutting on the bridge, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice credited many in local communities for spurring the project's launch.
"You're the engine. You made it happen over and over and over through all kinds of things," he said, adding, "You're here because this is really important to all of us. Life will be better because of a lot of people."
"I could not be happier. It is an incredible day. Your being here is testimony to you and how great you are. There have been a lot of people who put in a lot of licks and I thank you with all my heart."
After more than five years of construction, the 3,186-foot bridge was opened to pedestrians who took shuttles from Wellsburg and Beech Bottom or parked in Brilliant to attend the festivities, take in local bands, food trucks and classic cars found on the span and perhaps, most of all, get a close look at it.
The span is slated to open to traffic at 9 a.m. today.
Tom Davidson of Follansbee was among many area residents who accepted a public invitation from the Wellsburg Chamber of Commerce, which organized the festivities, to walk or run across the structure early in the morning.
"Until you're actually on it, you don't realize how massive it is," Davidson said, adding that even when its 830-foot main span was transported from a work yard at the south end of Wellsburg to its present site, the enormity of the completed span was not clear to him.
Davidson said he was impressed by the main span's delivery, by barges, to its future location, where it was raised, with hydraulic jacks, 80 feet above the water and onto its piers.
"How many things could have gone wrong?" he said.
Randy Damron, events coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, said raising the 4,100-ton structure was the heaviest such lifting operation in North America when it occurred on April 27, 2021.
Much praise was voiced on Wednesday for the contractor, the Flatiron Corp., and engineers with RS&H of Toledo and COWI of New York who were behind the $131 million project.
Many also remembered various groups that pushed for the bridge's establishment.
Former state legislator Jack Yost -- who represented Brooke County when BHJ began lobbying for state and federal funding for the bridge -- said Wellsburg resident Dick Harvey had approached him for help in expediting the project.
Harvey had led a grassroots group of Wellsburg area residents, followed by another led by Walter Ferguson, that sought in the 1990s to jumpstart an idea that had been discussed for many years.
Yost formed another volunteer group that included representatives of various sectors, including West Liberty University and Bethany College and produced a video espousing the bridge's benefits.
State Sen. Ryan Weld, D-Brooke, referred to a November 1928 newspaper article that suggested construction of a river crossing in the Wellsburg area could begin immediately but it did not.
Susan Phillips of Beech Bottom said she thought the new span might be built in an area near Short Creek, south of the village, where a ferry once transported people across the river.
"So many of our guys working at the Cardinal (Power) Plant rowed across the river (in boats)," Phillips added.
She recalled attending, with her late husband and former Beech Bottom mayor Paul Phillips, BHJ meetings at which the bridge was discussed.
Asked the span's personal impact on her, Phillips said, "My dentist is in Martins Ferry. This is really going to cut my time."
She added she hopes it will attract new businesses to Beech Bottom, noting two gas stations and other retail businesses once operated there.
In addition to the food trucks, a handful of businesses, including members of the Wellsburg Chamber of Commerce, embraced the opening as an opportunity to welcome potential new customers.
Drivers with Wheeling-based IC Cab Co. offered free rides to the bridge to attendees who had parked along streets in Brilliant.
Their efforts complemented shuttles provided by the Steel Valley Regional Transit Authority and Weirton Transit Corp. and Brooke County school buses.
Melissa Hood-Benges, owner of Hood's and Traubert's pharmacies, said their delivery drivers are excited about the time the bridge will cut from their deliveries to customers in Brilliant and other areas of Jefferson County.
Beech Bottom Mayor Becky Uhlly said, "This is a big day not just for Brooke County but for this entire area."
She noted the span offers another transportation option not only for Beech Bottom, Wellsburg and Brilliant, but also more rural areas in the southern ends of the two counties.
Uhlly also is optimistic it will spur economic development in her village.
"We have 150 acres of developable land along the river. Who else has that?" she said.
Wellsburg Mayor Dan Dudley called the bridge "an early Christmas present."
Dudley said he and other city officials have discussed with the trustees of Wells Township, of which Brilliant is a part, the possibility of collaborating on community events, such as celebrations of Independence Day and New Year's Day.
"In October we will host the Applefest, and we're hoping everybody from Wells Township comes to it," he said.
In addition to many state and local officials, Wednesday's celebration brought together the marching bands of Buckeye Local and Brooke high schools as well as Brooke's choir, which performed "Country Roads."