MORGANTOWN — Have you ever gotten frustrated behind the wheel and considered popping up on the sidewalk for a bit to avoid potholes or a tight stretch of road?
No?
Then it may come as a surprise to learn that some of the largest and heaviest vehicles rolling through Morgantown do just that multiple times every day on East Brockway Avenue.
The issue was raised during Thursday’s meeting of the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board after it was explained that the West Virginia Division of Highways is planning a 2024 resurfacing project on W.Va. 7 that will run from the Greer Building, in Sabraton, to University Avenue.
Policy Board member Steve Blinco said he’s witnessed trucks driving on the sidewalk during each of his recent trips up Brockway.
Others noted it’s been happening for years.
“Then it’s not the road I’m concerned about,” Blinco said. “That’s a pedestrian issue. Paving is a year away, but we need to address the pedestrian issue of trucks going up on the sidewalk … I’ve seen it twice and I’ve just been driving the past two or three days down there.”
Anyone who drives in Morgantown knows there is a constant flow of heavy trucks traveling W.Va. 7 — through Sabraton, around the perpetually-wavy “Hogback” turn, up Brockway Avenue and through downtown Morgantown to University Avenue.
The irony of these same trucks now driving on the sidewalk to smooth out the experience wasn’t lost on policy board members.
As for next summer’s paving project, a representative of the DOH told the Monongalia County Commission and representatives from Morgantown back in April that any lasting project to address Brockway Avenue is going to be a serious undertaking.
“Bottom line is those roads weren’t designed for the amount of truck traffic that is on them right now. In order to fix that it takes a chunk of money and some definite engineering to get to that point … I think there’s brick under a lot of that. I think an old trolley track runs under some of that. I don’t think that stuff has been properly addressed.,” he said.
“It’s one of those things that’s going to have to have some serious, serious thought put into fixing it and, bottom line, it’s going to take a pretty good pocketbook to make it work.”
During Thursday’s meeting, Policy Board member Ron Justice suggested bringing stakeholders together to pen a letter to the DOH asking that the route be reinforced against the weight of the trucks as part of the resurfacing work.