Tomorrow, Sept. 19, at 2 p.m., a restaurant that straddles the City of Bridgeport’s border – Eat n’ Park – will close operations after nearly 30 years of service to the area. The news officially broke in the first days of September.

 

As it always does on social media, a horde or rumors followed as to what would be next. Despite the doors not being closed, there were threads saying a Sheetz was going in place, the obligatory Red Lobster comments, and even a Five Guys was listed among dozens of others. Fortunately, no one – at least from what I read – called for a grocery store or a Macy’s.

 

The Sheetz one was the one with the most traction with the most “I heard it from an official” thing going for it all over Facebook and Twitter. It was the one I found most fascinating.

 

Although fascinating, there did not seem to be any truth to the rumor. Clarksburg Director of Economic Development John Whitmore, AICP, told me his office had heard nothing about the property, but he expected it to draw a lot of interest.

 

It should. It will.

 

That is why I found the Sheetz comments so interesting – and not because there is literally one at the other end of Lodgeville Road. There are two Sheetz situated at the ends of the same bridge in Star City so that is not an issue.

 

The location provides what Sheetz, any business for that matter, wants. The site offers visibility and traffic – a whole lot of both.

 

What that site cannot afford is more traffic. It is already an issue, as well as a dangerous one, to navigate the Lodgeville Road, Route 50, Tolley Drive, Best Western, Walgreen’s entrances. Yes, I am sure better driving, and less texting and phone play would remedy a lot of that, but it is simply not an ideal location.

 

Sheetz would easily add to that area’s traffic to a five-fold level. And I may be a bit on the conservative side of things. A high-level restaurant doubling or tripling the traffic of Eat n’ Park, which is exactly what will be desired, will also compound things.

 

What would yours truly like to see there? My answer is dependent on what I do not know is possible, but at least needs to be explored and Eat n’ Park’s departure is now the third opportunity for an entire intersection that was never built for the traffic it is currently experiencing.

 

Now, right now, the West Virginia Department of Transportation and its Division of Highways should be looking what, if anything, can be done with the property to improve traffic flow. I said the same thing with the gas station that left and MedExpress followed on property on the other side came open.

 

I said the same thing when the Exxon departed at the same intersection on the lot now housing Walgreens. I cannot remember which one it was or whom I talked with (my old notes I keep do not have it or I cannot find it), but after multiple attempts at the state WVDOT, someone did say that it was possible to look at sites for that purpose and eventually acquire them.

 

I remember little else, but since the person was unfamiliar with the intersection, they had little to say. That said, if the state can acquire the property through imminent domain, then it needs to expedite a study on whether acquiring that property would allow for some kind of fix to that side of the Route 50 boondoggle intersection.

 

If I am the City of Clarksburg, I want business there. It is an absolute prime piece of real estate that could host a new building with a seven-figure plus building permit. I get that, but I also want to see the intersection improved sometime before my lifetime ends.

 

That said, and I am far from a traffic engineer, just looking at how the property sits I am not sure acquiring it would do anything. And while I am far from a State of West Virginia economic analyst, I am certain the state will not pay a massive price tag for the property to sit empty to slightly – and I mean slightly – alleviate the traffic that was going in and out of the former business.

 

Ideally, a good business would go there that doesn’t have hundreds of cars going in and out every hour. The MedExpress from a traffic standpoint was about as good a fit as one could find. Had the old gas station been replaced with a Sheetz, I do not even want to think about what that side of the intersection would be dealing with today.

 

Will that happen? I have no idea. As a guess, and a novice one at that, the land will be transferred for another business. If it is a restaurant, I would prefer something local, but with the price tag coming with it a chain is almost a certainty – and I have got several I would love to see a developer land.

 

Regardless, just about anything arriving will add to the traffic. That leaves the only solution for people to become better drivers.

 

At this point, I can only hope better driving will result. For anyone driving that road, or a standard two-lane road, that is the kind of hope that is hard to find.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Eat 'n Park earlier this week, while the second photo shows traffic leaving Lodgeville and entering Route 50. In the third photo, an aerial shows the bulk of the intersectin in question. Bottom two photos show wrecks in recent years at the intersection. Aerial photo by Ben Queen of Ben Queen Photography.