REPLACEMENT — Plans to replace the Market Street Bridge continue, and West Virginia officials say a grant has been received for that bridge and the state has begun procurement for a consultant to work on the design. -- Warren Scott

Work to replace the Market Street Bridge connecting Brooke County and Steubenville continues to move forward, according to West Virginia’s new secretary of transportation.

Transportation Secretary Todd Rumbaugh offered an update on the process during a video conference Tuesday morning discussing the most recent study on the condition of West Virginia’s roads and bridges. Rumbaugh said a grant has been received for that bridge and the state has begun procurement for a consultant to work on the design.

“Going forward, once that contract is finalized with the consultant for the design of the bridge, they will then begin the process of designing, working with the public — there will be public meetings held — and we’ll go through that whole process in order to get that bridge replaced and get us a new one up there,” he said.

The federal grant for the project comes to $87.5 million. Last November, Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission Executive Director Mike Paprocki told the commission’s executive board the West Virginia Department of Transportation has committed $52.5 million from the state’s usual allotment of federal transportation funds and $35 million of its own funds to meet the 100 percent match required of the grant.

Following a routine inspection in December 2023, the West Virginia Division of Highways indefinitely closed the bridge to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, prompted by the continued deterioration of some of the 119-year-old bridge’s cable anchorages.

The federal grant to help replace the bridge was announced last July. According to the application, a replacement bridge will take between eight and 12 years to finish.