Bridgeport says no to ODOT’s plan for Ohio 7
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BRIDGEPORT -- A divided Bridgeport Village Council on Tuesday rejected an Ohio Department of Transportation bridge repair plan for Ohio 7 that would "box in the village."
According to Mayor Norma Teasdale, ODOT must seek approval from a village or city when it plans to work on a state route that passes through the municipality. She said ODOT first presented the plan to community leaders in 2019, but she said she and Ben Lenz, who were council members at the time, were only told that ODOT was going to "work on Route 7." She said they believed the basketball courts and park beneath the highway would be closed due to the presence of large equipment and did not know at the time that ODOT intended to fill in the area beneath the overpass that extends across much of the downtown area.
Current members of council and the administration said they did not know the details of the plan until 2023 and have had little time to consider it since ODOT wanted a decision to be made by the village this week.
Bryan May of May Engineering in St. Clairsville studied the project on behalf of the village and has been negotiating with ODOT to make some amendments to the project. According to May, the lengthy bridge needs to be repaired because it was not built to carry the large volume of heavy traffic that now travels across it on a daily basis.
He said the original pilings for the bridge abutments are not sufficient to bear that load and have sunk, causing cracking and a potentially dangerous situation.
To correct the problem, ODOT proposed filling in the open areas beneath the bridge with soil and constructing containment walls that would be 20-30 feet high on deep foundations to hold that soil and support the bridge. May said the walls would be plain, gray concrete and that they would obstruct the view of the Ohio River from the intersection of Ohio 7 and U.S. 40 and from much of the downtown.
"It's a standard DOT design that solves their problem, but it would box in the village," May said. "It would reduce the view of the river, light and air."
May said ODOT wanted council to pass legislation approving of the project by April. At that point, the design/build project would go to bid. He estimated it would take about a year for final drawings to be completed and that work would begin immediately thereafter. He said the project would be done in sections and would last for about two years.
Teasdale said the completion date set by ODOT is in 2027. She also said that, as a result of three or four meetings she and May have had with ODOT officials, some concessions have been made. Foremost among those is that ODOT agreed to replace traffic signals at the intersection of U.S. 40 and Ohio 7 - a project estimated to cost up to $500,000. Teasdale said the new signals would feature LED lights that rarely need to be changed. Currently, it costs the village about $200 each time a light needs to be changed.
Police Chief John Bumba noted that the signal system is complex because it is tied to the barricades at the nearby railroad crossing.
Additional concessions to the village include widening some areas of the roadway and adding some architectural elements, such as a "Gateway to the West feature." May said he is concerned about the negative impact the tall, gray walls could have on the value of property in the area, which houses businesses such as Wilson Furniture, the Masonic Lodge and the post office, and its impact on future economic development. He said if council does not approve the plan, it likely would delay the project by a year, but it would not halt it.
Councilman Ben Lenz made a motion for council to approve the plan. It died for lack of a second.
Additional discussion ensued, with Teasdale and others expressing concern that ODOT might withdraw its concessions and refuse to replace the traffic signals if council did not approve.
After a lengthy debate, Lenz again made a motion for council to approve the plan. Councilman Robert Bennington seconded the motion, and a roll call vote was taken. Council President Michelle Lucarelli abstained. Councilmen David Holmes and Lenz voted in favor, while members Joseph Lyle, Doris Dunkle and Bennington voted against approving the plan. The motion was defeated in a 3-2 vote.
Teasdale said she would contact ODOT regarding council's decision. Members said they hope they can get back to the table for more talks with ODOT in an effort to make the project more appealing for the community.