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Local planners say a new bridge spanning the Ohio River south of Wellsburg makes sense, but it likely will be at least a dozen years before it can be built.
Meanwhile, they'd like to see funding maintained for two aging spans - the 100-year-old Market Street Bridge north of Follansbee and the 76-year-old Fort Steuben Bridge in Weirton - until access improvements can be undertaken at both ends of the Veteran's Memorial Bridge, the newest of the three bridges spanning the Ohio River in the Weirton area.
The Market Street and Veteran's Memorial bridges are owned by the Mountain State, while Ohio has control over the Fort Steuben Bridge. The Fort Steuben Bridge is more easily accessible to truck traffic from Weirton's Half Moon Industrial Park, but its deteriorating condition - the bridge was dropped from "fair" to "poor" after its last evaluation - prompted authorities to impose a weight limit that prevents fully-loaded tractor-trailers from using it. The Market Street Bridge also has a weight limit.
The Ohio Department of Transportation seven years ago capped funding for maintaining the Fort Steuben Bridge at around $200,000 a year. Recently,...