PARKERSBURG - With the completion of the U.S. 50 bridge, traffic flow across the city's toll bridge has decreased. While city officials expect the loss to be between $4,000-$5,000 a month - the equivalent of about one business day-the bridge saw a $10,000 decrease in revenue for the month of August.
Mayor Bob Newell said a report regarding traffic and bridge collections for July indicates the loss of about $4,500 a month in revenue. However, the month of August saw a $10,000 decrease in revenue.
Newell downplayed the dramatic decrease, citing an unusually high revenue month for the Memorial Bridge in 2007. He thinks rising gasoline prices, coupled with the opening of the Blennerhassett Island Bridge this year, contributed to the decline.
City Finance Director Randy Craig said Memorial Bridge toll collections for August 2007 were $119,000. Collections for that month usually average about $115,000, he said.
"It was unusually high," Craig said. "I don't know why we had such a surge last year.
"Last year, with the bridge was the highest collection we ever had. It may have been a fluke," he said.
Newell agreed, saying the $10,000 loss was more of an anomaly than the norm.
"We expected it to be down some and we hoped truck traffic would be down and it is as you can see from the numbers."
Newell said the bridge saw 4,558 fewer passenger cars in August 2008, compared to August 2007.
One week figures for the month of August (2008) show a dramatic decrease in the number of three-axle and tractor trailer traffic crossing the Memorial Bridge.
Newell said last year 234 three-axle trucks crossed the toll bridge during the one-week span. This year there were only 84. Last year, 323 tractor trailers paid the toll to cross the bridge, compared to 187 this year.
"That is significantly down." Newell said. "And we hoped it would be down."
Newell estimates the loss of traffic and tolls will amount to a decrease of between $4,000-$5,000 a month.
"We're just going to have to monitor this for five or six months to get a true reading," he said.
Newell said the projected $48,000 in lost annual income from the bridge, due to the decrease in traffic, will not affect the ability to maintain or operate the bridge.
"What it affects is less street work," he said. "It does not diminish the ability to operate and maintain the bridge."
Newell said the Memorial Bridge brings in about $1.3 million annually. Between $200,000 and $300,000 of that goes into city street repairs.
That won't be the case for 2008-09. Newell said the money is going back into the bridge to pay for an in-depth inspection, paint and maintenance.
"We have had as much as $300,000 and as little as $175,000 in bridge revenues for council to appropriate," Craig said. "The bridge has to be done first."
