A pedestrian bridge spanning Don Knotts Boulevard would create a safe, direct connection between a significant portion of the city’s population and both the riverfront and rail-trail network.

It’s been a wish list item on every relevant planning document produced by the city of Morgantown in recent history.

It’s been identified as a Tier 1 priority by the policy board that steers the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization.

But is it even attainable?

The MPO has decided to answer that question once and for all with a $37,500 feasibility study to be conducted by engineering, planning and design consultants Kimley-Horn over the next four months or so.

“We’ve had quite a few discussions with the division of highways about this project. There is concern from their engineers about the actual feasibility and cost of doing this. They requested that we have a feasibility study done so that they can fully understand it,” MPO Executive Director Bill Austin explained during the most recent meeting of the MPO Policy Board. “One of the big issues that they have, of course, is the grade differentiation between 1st Ward, which would be connected down to and across Don Knotts Boulevard, basically to the waterfront.”

Funds for the study were already budgeted as part of the MPO’s Unified Planning Work Program for the current fiscal year.

“It’s basically a technical review at this point to say yes or no, is it feasible?” Austin said, noting the study would also look at some of the potential locations identified by the city.

“The exact location would be determined much more definitely by this study, and it would also look at the constructability and the potential need for things like elevators and so forth given the grade separation,” he said. 

This isn’t the first time the policy board has approved funds to initiate this project.

In October 2023, the body steered $400,000 in Surface Transportation Block Grant dollars to cover the engineering costs for the Don Knotts crossing.

But those funds were conditional upon feedback from the West Virginia Division of Highways, which ultimately voiced concerns about what it would take to build the structure and requested additional study.

Representatives of Morgantown City Council serving on the policy board said it’s beyond time to get some concrete answers on this long-desired connector.

“It would just be appropriate to finally get an answer, yes or no,” Bill Kawecki said. “It’s been on the wish list for so long.”