Bluefield is one of three cities in the country chosen to be part of a national pilot program that will upgrade road infrastructure in long-neglected neighborhoods inside those cities.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced earlier this week that Bluefield will be part of the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, with $185 million grant awards going to 45 communities.

This is a “first-of-its-kind initiative to reconnect communities that are cut off from opportunity and burdened by past transportation infrastructure decisions,” Buttigieg said.

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., last week announced a grant of just over $1 million that has been earmarked for the Reconnecting project to develop the “preliminary plans and environmental documentation for the future development of a … corridor that would expand and enhance access and transit between the East End, downtown Bluefield, and local amenities.”

Bluefield’s East End, which has historically been an African-American community, was one of three communities selected to be showcased in the program.

The other two were in big cities: Buffalo’s East Side and Boston’s Chinatown.

“That’s great news for the folks in our area,” said City Manager Cecil Marson, adding that the city is receiving another $500,000 grant to start on a sidewalk project that will tie in with the East End plan.

Since Bluefield is one of only three cities to be highlighted as part of the pilot program, Marson said he is confident the large project will be completed and used as a model.

That will mean an overhaul of roads and sidewalks in the East End area, including upgrading and paving the road near the tracks that runs in front of Bluefield State University and links Pulaski Street with Rt. 52.

According to the Buttigieg announcement, a “T”-shaped corridor is planned that would expand and enhance access and transit among the East End, downtown Bluefield, and local amenities.

The “T” will be a “corridor that would traverse the East End side of the railroad yard, creating a modern multi-modal street facility that would integrate with centrally-located bridge landings on that side, and provide updated sidewalks, bike lanes, landscaping and streetscaping. Collectively, the investments will rejuvenate and upgrade the ‘Main Street’ district of East End.”

It would better connect Bluefield State University with BSU’s Medical Education Center in the former Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

Bluefield is described in the Department of Transportation announcement as “a rural community of roughly 9,658 in West Virginia, has a commercial center that occupies … a well-developed area that is predominantly white and middle or upper-middle-class.

“This is compared to Bluefield’s ‘East End,’ a predominantly Black and lower-income community that has grown up ‘on the other side of the tracks,’ quite literally, as a large railroad bed limits access to the opportunities downtown provides.”

Preserving history is on the agenda. The project will “honor East End’s rich cultural history by investing in the preservation of a number of landmarks like the Thelma Hotel.”

The East End community’s “rich history as a center of Black life and culture” is highlighted, mentioning Hotel Thelma and the Travelers’ Inn, which were featured in the “Green Book,” which included lists of places for Black travelers to stay and eat since they were not allowed in most establishments at the time.

Those hotels housed big name performers in the 1950s and 1960s, including Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard, Duke Ellington and James Brown. Those performers and many more played at the Bluefield Auditorium.

“Roughly 19 trains pass through daily, adding noise and pollution to the community while serving as both a physical and psychological barrier for the East End community,” the announcement said.

The program is funded with $1 billion over the next five years from the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

The federal article also mentioned the fight to construct the Grant Street Bridge, which spawned protests and “served as the catalyst for the application.”

Work is progressing quickly on the new bridge, which was closed in 2019 after failing a state safety inspection.

It is slated to be finished later in the summer this year.

Marson said the city applied for the program and he praised city employees for their work.

“It is a major project,” he said. “These grants are huge. I can’t think of a better investment for our city.”