The series we ran last month on the Bellaire Bridge — it wrapped up Sunday — has exposed some very serious issues. First, just who is responsible for the span? Second, what happens if the unthinkable (is it really so unthinkable after the tragedy that took place in Baltimore this week?) occurs and the bridge collapses into the Ohio River?

The sad fact is no one — not West Virginia, not Ohio — wants any responsibility for the span. Ohio officials started this mess when they purchased the Bellaire side of the bridge for construction of the new Ohio 7. The ramp was removed and never rebuilt. The span has been closed since 1991, sitting unused for the past 33 years.

Today, trees grow out of the asphalt surface and the bridge is more rust than paint. The span’s current owner, KDC Investments, has no plans and KDC Investment’s principal owner, Lee Chaklos, has refused to comment on our series. Other companies such as Norfolk Southern have been involved in discussions about the bridge’s future after a federal judge in Ohio ordered a group to come up with a plan.

Five years later, that group’s proposals — if they even put them forth — appear to have made no impact. At the beginning of April 2024, the Bellaire Bridge still stands, rusting and unused, a conservatory to wayward trees and shrubs — a testament to bureaucratic nonsense of the highest order.

Knowing this, and understanding that accidents do happen as we saw just a few days ago, it is beyond negligent that this span is allowed to continue standing.

If it were to fall into the Ohio River, it would snarl river traffic for weeks.

How is this acceptable?

Money for the most foolish of projects has flowed like water over the past few years. The fact that none went to the bridge — we can sort out penalties for the owner later — is ridiculous.