Winter takes its toll on Heritage Port

By SHELLEY HANSON, For The Times Leader
WHEELING — Each winter, the Heritage Port Amphitheater becomes a muddy mess after high water from the Ohio River leaves behind debris.

And when the river recedes, it also steals grass planted just the season before.

Although city officials can’t control river fluctuations, they hope to combat the damage flooding causes each season by removing some lower level grass and replacing it with concrete, said Public Works Director Russell Jebbia. Black plastic mats were installed to prevent the grass from being damaged, but they, too, were torn to pieces over time, rendering them useless.

Funding for the concrete project is expected to be provided by the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corp., and the city will bid out the project. WNHAC Project Manager Jeremy Morris could not be reached Monday for comment.

Jebbia said WNHAC and the city always understood the port would be prone to flooding — it was in the design. But officials did not realize the cleanup would be as strenuous as it is each year. The designers said the port would be ‘‘self-cleaning,’’ he noted, but tree branches still get stuck in railings and mud still clings to grass and concrete. The railings were an Americans with Disabilities Act requirement, he said.

‘‘We always understood it would be under water at the level of the lower concourse,’’ Jebbia said of the port in winter.

Completed in 2001, the port was constructed in a way that allows for boaters to have easy access to it and its docks during warmer weather. It was built for the "average summer river level," Jebbia said. But this easy access also meant during the offseason, the lower level would be at the river’s mercy. When the river depth is between 24 and 25 feet, water covers the port’s brick and concrete stage area, which has been under water six or seven times this winter, Jebbia noted.

Flood stage at Wheeling is 36 feet, and its ‘‘action stage’’ is 26.7 feet, said Link Crawford, hydrologist with the Ohio River Forecast Center. The highest level the river at Wheeling reached this winter was 33.83 feet on Feb. 8, Crawford said.

Cleaning of the port is expected to begin in May. Temporary water meters first must be installed. Fire hoses will be connected to the meters and used to spray away the mud. The meters are removed each winter so they don’t freeze. Grass cutting and other landscaping at the port is contracted out. ‘We should be down there soon. Right now our priority is to get the potholes patched; we’re getting caught up on that,’’ Jebbia said.