×

Main Street in Belpre to be closed

BELPRE – CSX Transportation on Monday announced it will close Main Street to traffic for two days to make repairs to the railroad tracks.

A press release from the company said both lanes of Main Street will close at 7 a.m. on Monday and reopen late Tuesday or early Wednesday morning as CSX Railroad workers replace rails on the tracks above the roadway.

“It all depends on how well their work goes when the road will reopen,” said Mayor Mike Lorentz.

Lorentz said his biggest issue with the road closure is the traffic.

“This is going to be a test to see how much attention people pay to signs and the news,” he said.

Although semi trucks and other large vehicles regularly travel Main Street to take the Belpre-Parkersburg Bridge into West Virginia, they are unable to take other Belpre side streets or turn around due to space.

“Cars and other passenger vehicles can turn around and take Walnut Street to get around the closure, but if a semi goes down Main Street, there will be trouble,” Lorentz said. “There is no way they can turn around there and Walnut is too low with the tracks overhead for the trucks to make it.”

Alternate routes will be marked with signs put up by the city.

While cars will be encouraged to take Walnut Street a residential street that runs adjacent to Main Street – large trucks will need to take U.S. 50/Ohio 7 to Farson Street to get into Belpre.

“Everyone will need to pay attention and we are contacting all of the businesses that will be affected,” Lorentz said. “We thought it would be only about half a dozen businesses, but when we drove around today, we realized that it is closer to 40 or 50 businesses that this road closure will affect.”

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today