MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown Utility Board will close Willowdale Road Friday morning at Stewart and McCullough streets for work tiled to the utility’s Upper Popenoe Run project.
That closure is expected to begin at 7 a.m. and may run until Sunday.
Only local traffic will be permitted access to Willowdale Road.
“We started the first two bores. The number one bore is in. We have hit an issue with the second bore. We cannot get accurate depths on a water line and gas line. By the time we get in there and dig holes looking for those lines and getting those depths, we’ll already be halfway across the road,” MUB General Manager Mike McNulty said.
So, instead of boring under the road to install 30 feet of 24-inch steel casing containing a 12-inch gravity sewer main perpendicular to Willowdale Road, the contractor will use an open cut, requiring the closure.
“It looks like that’s going to be the better method … safer,” McNulty said.
When the work is complete, the road will be temporarily resurfaced with asphalt. Permanent road repairs will be done later.
Detours around the roadwork include:
~ Traffic approaching Stewart Street will be routed around Stewart Street to Chestnut Ridge Road. Traffic can then take Valley View Avenue, or Irwin Street, or continue on Chestnut Ridge Road to Willowdale Road.
~ Traffic approaching McCullough Street will be routed up McCullough Street to Hoffman Avenue then onto Stewart Street to the intersection of Stewart Street and Willowdale Road.
The Upper Popenoe Run sanitary and stormwater improvements represent a $3.2 million project that includes the installation of 2,950 feet of gravity sewer line, 1,070 feet of storm sewer, the rehabilitation of the Upper Popenoe Run stream and some 207 tree plantings.
Financing for the project includes $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds from both Morgantown and Monongalia County.
