The West Road bridge renovations, while inconvenient now, will eventually make our community safer.
Morning and afternoon school traffic continues to grow as the West Road pedestrian bridge (near Kroger) is under construction. With 1372 students getting to and from Harrison High School every day, traffic is bound to be congested on not only West Road, but Dry Fork and New Haven as well. This has only increased this school year as many updated traffic patterns including the bridge on West Road bring cars to a screeching halt, taking valuable time out of student’s busy schedules.
The renovations are important, though, says city councilman Mike Mains. “We had a fatality on that bridge in 2018,” Mains states, stressing the necessity of a safe pedestrian crossway. “We’re looking at a project that should’ve been done twenty years ago.” Mains continues, “[In a 2019 traffic study], we had pictures of students like yourself walking across that bridge, riding their bicycles across that bridge.”
The West Road pedestrian bridge is currently scheduled to be finished in June of 2024 after many years of debate on whether or not this project was worth completing. The city invested $300,000 into this multimillion-dollar project in hopes of keeping up with the fast-growing community of Harrison. This new addition, while currently seeming like an additional hassle to many students and staff, will help to create a safer walkway for many students and community members in the upcoming months.
