WVPB looked at what did and didn’t get the governor’s signature and we continue our series looking back at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic four years after its start.
We also take a look at the Republican primary race for a U.S. Senate seat, as well as updates from the state police on investigations into sexual misconduct.
On this West Virginia Week, the deadline for the governor to sign or veto bills from the state legislature’s regular session before they automatically become law was this week, and WVPB looked at what did and didn’t get the governor’s signature.
We continue our series looking back at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail and outdoor recreation four years after its start.
We also take a look at the Republican primary race for a U.S. Senate seat, as well as updates from the state police on investigations into sexual misconduct.
Chris Schulz is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick and Randy Yohe.
The Silver Bridge collapse, on the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, killed 46 people. After it, the Federal Highway Administration began using National Bridge Inspection Standards.
The collapse of a highway bridge in Baltimore Harbor may remind some West Virginians of a tragedy that changed how bridges nationwide are inspected.
They required the inspection of bridges and their components at least once every two years, with emphasis on fractures, corrosion and fatigue – all of which played a part in the Silver Bridge’s failure.
Stan Bumgardner, a state historian and editor of the West Virginia Encyclopedia, says technology today could have spotted the hidden flaw in the Silver Bridge. It couldn’t then.
“Now, today, they have, you know, techniques where you can get cameras, and you can see places where you couldn’t have seen in 1967. But in 1967 nobody really ever faulted the bridge inspectors for missing anything, just because it wasn’t part of the routine to check for that. And it would have been virtually impossible, they would have had to have been looking for. a needle in a haystack and knowing where the needle was, and still trying to find it.”
Bumgardner says he’s spoken to people in the community who not only remember that day, but remember the people who were killed. Some were classmates or members of the same church. Some were neighbors. One man lost both his parents.
He says the memory is so strong, decades later, that incidents like the one in Baltimore remind people of it.
“I’m sure for people in Point Pleasant who remember, December the 15th 1967, that anytime there’s any of these bridge incidents, collapses, problems with where they have to shut down bridges, even where they’re even no deaths involved. I’m sure it takes all those people in Point Pleasant back to 1967. And they remember exactly where they were and how they felt right then.”
As with the Silver Bridge then, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the Baltimore collapse now. It could take the agency as long as two years to produce a report.
And from there, changes will be made to improve bridge safety from the lessons learned.
The House passed House Concurrent Resolution 78, indefinitely extending Gov. Jim Justice’s state of emergency over correction facilities staffing levels. The concerns continue to focus on safety, security and maintaining National Guard support.
On Thursday, the House of Delegates lifted the requirement that medical facilities must show a service is needed and extended a State of Emergency for the state’s corrections system.
House Bill 613 passed with a 75-20 vote. The bill lifts certificate of need requirements for birthing centers and medical facilities on a hospital campus and allows facilities other than hospitals to perform MRI’s. Previously, medical facilities had to get state approval before offering new services.
Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, opposed the bill, concerned the measure would hurt more people than it helped.
“When you allow these private practices to offer these types of procedures that are really what they can bill a whole lot more with, the hospitals also will bill a whole lot more,” Pushkin said. “When they can cherry pick, and they can say, well, we’re not going to take PEIA, we’re not going to take Medicaid, we’re not going to take Medicare, we’re only gonna take private payers. The hospitals, they have to take everybody and rightfully so. Then you can run into a dangerous situation, and who will it hurt? The people who need the services because they can’t afford it.”
Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, supported the bill. She said it would help her constituents with enhanced medical options.
“I live in Summersville. As you all well know, it’s about an hour commute either to Beckley, an hour and a half to Charleston, an hour and a half to Clarksburg or some of our patients even go to Elkins to get obstetrical care,” Tully said. “My hospital in my community also is interested in expanding some cancer treatment services and so that would also eliminate the travel times for patients in my area that may need cancer treatment services if those are to be implemented.
HB 613 is effective from passage and now goes to the governor for his signature.
The House passed House Concurrent Resolution 78, indefinitely extending Gov. Jim Justice’s state of emergency over correction facilities staffing levels. The concerns continue to focus on safety, security and maintaining National Guard support.
Del. David Kelly, R-Tyler, chair of the House Jails and Prisons Committee, spoke of the continued dangerously low corrections employment rate.
“We expect to spend anywhere from $17 to $20 million this year, just to cover the cost of our National Guard. Additionally, we’re looking at $22-plus million dollars last year in overtime. And we can only expect that that number will increase this year, because we’re losing our officers almost on a daily basis,” Kelly said. “Our officers are saying I can’t do this anymore. And so I just want to share just a few things with you, if I may. As of March 2, we have 1,042 overall vacancies in DCR, that’s 27 percent. Now when we narrow that down, what we’ve got are 751 officer vacancies. That’s unconscionable. That’s 33 percent vacancies in our jails and prisons.”
The House also completed legislation on House Bill 2002, providing support for families by increasing an adoption tax credit, establishing the eligibility of adopted children of West Virginia residents for early intervention services and creating the West Virginia Mothers and Babies Pregnancy Support Program.
And they passed Senate Bill 273, which allocates child protective service workers in counties according to a county’s average caseload and population based on the 2020 Census.
The bill requires the Department of Human Services to report those changes to the legislature and have a backup system in the event of a centralized intake outage. The bill also orders the development of a merit-based system for specified employees.
Both HB 2002 and SB 273 now go to the governor for his signature.
On Dec.15, 1967, the Silver Bridge that connected Point Pleasant, W.Va. and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed under the weight of afternoon rush-hour traffic. Forty-six people died.
On Dec. 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge that connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed under the weight of afternoon rush-hour traffic. Forty-six people died.
Now 79 and retired, former WSAZ-TV cameraman Earl Ward was one of the first journalists to reach the Ohio River disaster site. His memories begin with his arrival shortly after the collapse.
“I came up on the West Virginia side and I mean the whole bridge was in the water,” Ward said. “If I remember right, there were 45 cars or so involved. They were just working hard, trying to get to any people that were in the cars –to get them out.”
These were the days of television news, before satellite live shots and cell phones capturing on-the-scene reports. Ward remembered his role in covering the disaster that first, cold December night. There would be many more stories.
“I went up there with a guy from Logan that worked for us by the name of Jim Mitchell,” Ward said. “We filmed the scene and then he went back to do the 11 o’clock news and took what video we had shot up to that point back. I stayed there until, I guess it was twelve or one o’clock at night.”
Two of the victims were never found. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure of a single I-beam in a suspension chain. Analysis showed that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it had been designed for and had been poorly maintained.
Young videographer Ward from Raleigh County would become Chief Photographer for WSAZ-TV. Ward was on the scene of West Virginia disasters like the Buffalo Creek Flood and the aftermath of the Marshall Plane Crash.
Earl and WVPB Government Reporter Randy Yohe covered stories together for decades as a WSAZ-TV reporter and photographer team. Five years ago, on the Silver Bridge Disaster 50th Anniversary, Yohe and his wife Vickie took Earl to the Point Pleasant remembrance ceremony.
“It just brought back memories,” Ward said. “I recalled seeing the people – regular citizens – on both sides of the river, working to help first responders as much as they could, but a number of people still lost their lives. It was a major disaster.”
The tragedy inspired state and national legislation to ensure that older bridges were regularly inspected and maintained. The collapsed bridge was replaced by the Silver Memorial Bridge, which was completed in 1969.
West Virginia is also marking this 55th anniversary. Go to WVDOT for more on the Silver Bridge Disaster.
Congress and President Joe Biden have committed to spending big dollars on roads and bridges. However, Biden’s recent visit to Pittsburgh to discuss the infrastructure program was punctuated by the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge. Since then, residents of West Virginia have been spurred to ask questions about their own bridges.
A recent analysis of National Bridge Inventory data shows that 7 percent of all bridges in the U.S. received a poor rating. West Virginia has the highest rate in the country, with more than 20 percent of the state’s bridges considered structurally deficient or in poor condition.
On January 28, the day theFern Hollow Bridge collapsed, Morgantown resident Stephanie Shepard began researching the conditions of bridges in her area.
“I’m from this area originally, I’ve been over that bridge many times. So I started to wonder if there were other bridges that were at risk in the area, or if that was the only one,” Shepard said.
Like a lot of people looking for answers in the aftermath of the collapse, Shepard heard that the Fern Hollow Bridge had been rated poor on the NBI, and she quickly searched the database for poor bridges in Monongalia County.
The database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, has information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States. During her research, Shepard discovered it had been created largely as a response to the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, W. Va. in 1967, a key event in the Mothman legend.
Shepard found that more than one out of every six bridges in Monongalia County were rated poor, like the bridge that had collapsed in Pittsburgh.
“I wanted that knowledge to be available to people,” Shepard said.
Chris Schulz
/
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
A screenshot of the interactive map of bridges rated “poor” in Monongalia County created by Stephanie Shepard.
Shepard and others like her across the country have cause for concern, and have started asking questions about the nation’s infrastructure.
The West Virginia Department of Transportation did not respond to requests for comment, but in just the last few months, politicians have started answering.
Governor Jim Justice’s Roads to Prosperity program has identified more than 150 bridges it will be working on with the program’s projected $2.7 billion. The state is also expected to receive over $500 million for bridge repairs alone from the federal infrastructure bill over the next five years.
These planned expenditures come at a time when more attention is being placed on the nation’s aging infrastructure.
“It is not uncommon to have such distress in these bridges, especially with those bridges that have been in service 50 years plus,” said Hota GangaRao, Ph.D. He is the director of the Construction Facilities Center at West Virginia University, and has been studying and helping to build bridges in the state since 1968, almost as long as the NBI has existed.
“Believe it or not, we have about 50 percent of our bridges that have a service life of 50 years plus in the country today. So we have a major issue that needs addressing,” GangaRao said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the causes of January’s collapse, but structural failure due to faulty bridge parts is rare in the United States. More commonly, bridges fail due to external factors such as flooding, overloading, or collisions by boats.
So while concern is warranted, and much work is needed, GangaRao says the bridges Shepard and others have identified are stable.
“Poor rating does not mean that it will collapse tomorrow or tonight, ” he said.
Age is a major factor, but more than anything is the quality of the bridge’s deck. That’s the surface of the bridge, made of concrete or asphalt, that you walk and drive over. If the deck is in good condition, GangaRao says it will protect the larger structure from the corrosive effects of road salts and other chemicals.
GangaRao points out that the Fern Hollow Bridge’s decking was almost 10 years past its planned service period.
For community members like Shepard interested in taking action to protect and improve local bridges, GangaRao suggests reporting any visible issues to the appropriate authorities.
“I’m not at all saying one should take anything into their hands. Alerting the appropriate authorities will help a great deal,” he said.
Another thing he recommends is advocating for local bridges to be washed regularly.
But that still leaves questions for Shepard.
“I have to wonder why they’re still in poor condition, and why they haven’t been repaired,” Shepard said.
One of West Virginia’s most enduring symbols is a bridge: the New River Gorge Bridge. And while that great arch might get most of the world’s attention, the more than 7,000 other bridges in the state need some attention as well.
Elkview residents will have to wait at least two more months for a shopping center to reopen after an access bridge collapsed earlier last month during massive flash-flooding.
Beth Abruzzino, director of facilities maintenance for Plaza Management, told shopping center tenants in an email that the ownership expects construction to begin within a week and take eight weeks.
In the month since the floods, little progress has been made on the bridge that connects customers and employees to restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores and a hotel in the shopping center.
Abruzzino says the reason for the delay was that the bridge had to be permitted by multiple agencies.
