MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The city of Morgantown has announced about $500,000 worth of road work is planned in the city this fall. The work includes improvements to Eighth Street between Beechurst and University Avenues and a slide repair on White Avenue.
Pittsburgh-based Baiano Construction has been awarded a $350,342.83 contract to improve pedestrian safety on Eighth Street.
The Eighth Street project includes repaving, 2,000 feet of wider sidewalk, storm drainage, ADA ramps and a bike path from Grant Avenue to Beechurst Avenue. Morgantown city engineer Damien Davis said a portion of the new sidewalk will be built into the edge of the existing roadway, reducing the lane width to 11 feet in each direction.
“It’s going to take a chunk of the roadway, this helps us avoid utilities that are in that area,” Davis said,”It helps us bring the cost of the project down because we don’t have relocate those utilities.”
Davis said Baiano has completed other projects on High Street and is familiar with the standards and expectations of completing work in Morgantown.
Work on Eighth Street is expected to begin in mid-October and be completed by mid-December.
White Avenue is the connector between Sabraton and Greenmont in Morgantown and has been closed to vehicle traffic near Marilla Park due to a slide that began to occur in the spring of 2018.
White Avenue remains passable for pedestrians and cyclists, but motorists are using Brockway Avenue as a detour.
Kingwood-based Rock Forge Bridge Company has been awarded a $151,017.00 contract to fix the slip and reopen the road.
“This is a pile and lagging wall, it’s about 100-feet long,” Morgantown city engineer Damien Davis said,”Once do the wall they’ll fix the road that’s broken away and do some drainage improvements as well.”
The performance period for the White Avenue work is 90 days.