MORGANTOWN — Six months ago, when the Walnut Street streetscape project kicked off in downtown Morgantown, the West Virginia Division of Highways set Monday’s start of WVU’s fall semester as the project’s do-not-exceed date.
Now it looks like Morgantown motorists will be polishing off their Halloween haul and preparing to give thanks before the work is done.
“The original completion estimate was to finish the project before the Fall 2025 semester, and the estimate is now November due to the necessary revisions,” said Jason Nelson, DOH District 4 Construction Engineer.
Nelson said materials are expected to arrive next week that will allow work to resume after a lengthy delay due to unexpected conditions in underground vaults that extend out below the street’s sidewalks.
“While working in the vaulted areas of the sidewalk adjacent to several buildings, the contractor encountered issues in field conditions of building utilities and structural supports which could not be resolved without redesigns,” Nelson explained. “The redesigns required several meetings and field reviews to resolve, and ordering additional materials to address.”
One lane of Walnut Street – as well as all on-street parking and the sidewalk on the north side of the street – have been completely off limits or severely impacted since early February, when Blue Gold Development arrived to complete a $1,203,349 streetscape project.
The work will include extensive lighting upgrades, a new sidewalk and other pedestrian improvements and a full asphalt overlay in the one-block stretch between Spruce and High streets.
A short time later progress came to an abrupt halt. The worksite in the heart of the city’s downtown has been idle for months now, frustrating motorists, pedestrians and, particularly, Walnut Street business owners.
Last month, Main Street Morgantown helped push for signage along the construction zone alerting passers-by that while the impacted businesses may be trickier to access, they’re still very much open.
A couple weeks later, a few short-term parking spaces at the top of Walnut’s south side were allowed, at least temporarily, to reopen.
