MORGANTOWN — The city of Morgantown is gearing up to take on its portion of the Beechurst Avenue improvement project.
During its most recent regular meeting, Morgantown City Council approved on first reading an ordinance annulling the short section of 1st Street between Beechurst Avenue and Hall Street.
Just as it did last year with the portion of Campus Drive between McLane and Beechurst avenues, the city is swapping the land that currently comprises the right of way to WVU for the land on which the relocated portions of Campus Drive and 1st Street will be located.
Squaring up that intersection is a major component of the overall Beechurst upgrade, which includes a widening and restriping of Beechurst as well as turn lanes onto and off of Campus Drive.
The relocated intersection will require the construction of a 240-foot-long retaining wall.
“DOH’s project is moving along now. They’re doing the water line placement. They’ll move on to Campus Drive soon and that will be where our project is picking up,” Engineering and Public Works Director Damien Davis said.
Davis said he expects design work on the city’s 1st Street relocation to wrap up in the next two weeks and the project to be ready to be put out for bid in about a month.
While Davis said it’s difficult to nail down an estimated cost given recent trends, the city is anticipating it could run up to $1 million.
There is some hope that cost could be cut down by using the DOH’s Beechurst contractor, but as the city is required to utilize the lowest qualified bid, that remains to be seen.
Bear Contracting was awarded the DOH’s Beechurst contract with a bid of $5,478,899.91 in July 2022.
Depending on how the 1st Street bids come in, Davis said he’s hopeful there will be some money left to begin looking at improvements to trail parking off Hall Street, which runs parallel to the rail-trail.
The state estimates the Beechurst project will be completed in spring of 2024.
