BLUEFIELD, WV (WOAY) – The City of Bluefield held Grant Street Bridge Task Force meeting on Thursday, January 9, 2020.
The city of Bluefield is one step closer to knowing the faith of the Grant Street Bridge. The two options discussed in today’s meeting were to repair or replace the bridge completely.
“The major takeaways are one we are going to try to figure out what can we do about repairing or replacing the bridge and where we can get funding for that. And also we want to make sure that it’s understood that everyone in the city of Bluefield affected by this and not just the people who live in direct proximity of the bridge,” said City Attorney of Bluefield Colin Cline.
Engineers showed images of the severely damaged bridge. Another concern was funding. The bridge is privately owned by Norfolk Southern Railroad but is in partnership with the city to maintain the bridge. The railroad corporation decided not to send a representative to the meeting.
“That bridge has a lot of historic values to it. East end and the northside are probably the most vital part of constructing the city of Bluefield. We have most of the business in the past years and were on that side of town before we had all the input from the south Bluefield side,” said Deloris French.
