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Elkins Municipal Properties Committee discusses Baxter Street swinging bridge’s future

ELKINS — There are no plans to demolish the historic Baxter Street swinging bridge, but it is unsafe for pedestrian traffic and can never be made compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which eliminates most state and federal grants as an option for funding a restoration, officials said Wednesday.

The bridge was discussed by the

during a noon meeting at City Hall.

Lisa Armstrong is with the Elkins Historic Landmarks Commission. She spoke of a desire within the community to preserve the bridge and of concern for its future. Armstrong said the bridge is nearly unique, as there is only one other like it in the nation.

“This structure has historical significance, nationally,” she said. “We have something  very unique in our city right now, and we should not dismiss it.”

Armstrong said the Historic Landmarks Commission wants time to survey the bridge and research possible funding options for a restoration. At the very least, she said, historians would like the chance to fully document the structure before it is torn down.

City Operations Manager Bob Pingley noted there are no current plans to destroy the bridge. The approach ramps have been removed, however, in order to prevent pedestrians from using the unsafe structure, he said.

“Tearing it down is not on the horizon, as far as I’m aware,” Pingley said.

Councilman and committee member Mark Scott added, “We have no intention of demolishing the bridge.”

However, the bridge will remain closed. The bridge was recently found to be unsafe for pedestrian traffic, Pingley said.

Councilman Mark Scott, center, talks about the Baxter Street Bridge on Wednesday. Also pictured are Councilman Bob Woolwine, left, and Councilman Charles Friddle, right.

Engineering company Michael Baker International is the organization responsible for monitoring the safety of the New River Gorge Bridge. Recently, they performed a review of the Baxter Street bridge and found it to be unsafe, according to a letter sent to Pingley by Josh Derechin, technical manager. Structurally, the bridge sways and deforms violently under relatively light loads.

“A modern pedestrian bridge would be designed to be fully loaded from start to end with an 85-pound-per-square-foot floor load from pedestrians; this would equate to approximately 40,000 pounds. It is very doubtful that the existing bridge could take a fully loaded condition,” Derechin wrote.

Geometrically, the absolute minimum width for pedestrian bridges is 5 feet from rail to rail, Derechin said. The existing bridge is approximately 3 feet wide and the chain-link fence railing does not meet the railing strength or geometric requirements, he said.

The 3-foot width creates an unsafe condition when pedestrians are crossing the bridge from opposite directions, Derechin said. The condition of the bridge is very poor, with many rotted timber boards and rusted cables that have significantly less capacity than they were originally designed for.

At one time, the city had received a grant for possible restoration of the bridge, Pingley said. However, that grant would require the bridge to be ADA compliant, and due to the structure’s specifications, that would not be possible. The city had to reject the grant.

“We were told, in no uncertain terms, the money could not be used to renovate the bridge because it could not be made ADA compliant,” Pingley said.

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