Bridge Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

New Wellsburg Bridge Opens With Celebration

The 1,875-foot Wellsburg Bridge now connects Wellsburg, West Virginia in the Northern Panhandle to Brilliant, Ohio.

Getting from Wellsburg, West Virginia in the Northern Panhandle to Brilliant, Ohio used to be a chore. For decades, people in both communities have been asking for a bridge across the river.

And on Wednesday, that wish became a reality.

The 1,875-foot Wellsburg Bridge now connects the communities. It was built as part of the 2017 Roads to Prosperity program.

The local community celebrated the opening with a car show, food trucks, bands and fireworks. It is also featured on the West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) podcast “WV on the DOT.”

The episode, which is now available on most podcast providers, was recorded on the Wellsburg Bridge during the bridge’s grand opening celebration. The podcast hosts captured local voices about what the bridge will mean to them.

Local resident Barbara Miller.

*Courtesy West Virginia Department of Transportation*

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the Northern Panhandle,” Barbara Miller, a resident of Windsor Heights in Brooke County, said. “We’ll use this bridge to go to the malls more easily. My granddaughter recently got a job in Steubenville, Ohio so I am really happy she’ll be able to use this bridge every day and shorten her route.”

“There are a lot of people here supporting their community and ready for this new connection,” Rowdy Workman, of Shadyside, Ohio, said.

Workman grew up in Moundsville, West Virginia. He participated in the grand opening ceremony, presenting the colors when Gov. Jim Justice arrived.

The 830-foot main span of the bridge was built off-site on the bank of the Ohio River just upstream from the bridge site by Flatiron Construction of Broomfield, Colorado. Flatiron won the $131 million contract to build the new bridge.

“The bridge is here because of the community on both sides of the river,” Mike Swinson, of Flatiron Construction, said on the podcast. “These folks have been wanting this bridge, this connection, for decades. They are the genesis of this. Working with West Virginia DOT and Ohio DOT, this bridge got the funding and Flatiron was selected to deliver the bridge.”

On April 26, 2021, the 830-foot main span was lifted onto two pairs of barges and moved into position in a massive, 13-and-a-half-hour operation. It was the largest bridge floating project ever attempted in North America.

The bridge was supported on the barges by eight sets of sectional pilings. Once in place, it was slowly jacked up and additional pylons were set underneath until it was high enough to rest on its support piers.

West Virginians Eye Local Bridges After Pittsburgh Collapse

Congress and President Joe Biden have committed to spending big dollars on roads and bridges. However, Biden’s recent visit to Pittsburgh to discuss the infrastructure program was punctuated by the collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge. Since then, residents of West Virginia have been spurred to ask questions about their own bridges.

A recent analysis of National Bridge Inventory data shows that 7 percent of all bridges in the U.S. received a poor rating. West Virginia has the highest rate in the country, with more than 20 percent of the state’s bridges considered structurally deficient or in poor condition.

On January 28, the day theFern Hollow Bridge collapsed, Morgantown resident Stephanie Shepard began researching the conditions of bridges in her area.

“I’m from this area originally, I’ve been over that bridge many times. So I started to wonder if there were other bridges that were at risk in the area, or if that was the only one,” Shepard said.

Like a lot of people looking for answers in the aftermath of the collapse, Shepard heard that the Fern Hollow Bridge had been rated poor on the NBI, and she quickly searched the database for poor bridges in Monongalia County.

The database, compiled by the Federal Highway Administration, has information on all bridges and tunnels in the United States. During her research, Shepard discovered it had been created largely as a response to the collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, W. Va. in 1967, a key event in the Mothman legend.

Shepard found that more than one out of every six bridges in Monongalia County were rated poor, like the bridge that had collapsed in Pittsburgh.

Shepard made a map of all the bridges’ locations, and posted it to a Morgantown community page on Facebook.

“I wanted that knowledge to be available to people,” Shepard said.

A screenshot of the interactive map of bridges rated “poor” in Monongalia County created by Stephanie Shepard.

Shepard and others like her across the country have cause for concern, and have started asking questions about the nation’s infrastructure.

The West Virginia Department of Transportation did not respond to requests for comment, but in just the last few months, politicians have started answering.

Governor Jim Justice’s Roads to Prosperity program has identified more than 150 bridges it will be working on with the program’s projected $2.7 billion. The state is also expected to receive over $500 million for bridge repairs alone from the federal infrastructure bill over the next five years.

These planned expenditures come at a time when more attention is being placed on the nation’s aging infrastructure.

“It is not uncommon to have such distress in these bridges, especially with those bridges that have been in service 50 years plus,” said Hota GangaRao, Ph.D. He is the director of the Construction Facilities Center at West Virginia University, and has been studying and helping to build bridges in the state since 1968, almost as long as the NBI has existed.

“Believe it or not, we have about 50 percent of our bridges that have a service life of 50 years plus in the country today. So we have a major issue that needs addressing,” GangaRao said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the causes of January’s collapse, but structural failure due to faulty bridge parts is rare in the United States. More commonly, bridges fail due to external factors such as flooding, overloading, or collisions by boats.

So while concern is warranted, and much work is needed, GangaRao says the bridges Shepard and others have identified are stable.

“Poor rating does not mean that it will collapse tomorrow or tonight, ” he said.

Age is a major factor, but more than anything is the quality of the bridge’s deck. That’s the surface of the bridge, made of concrete or asphalt, that you walk and drive over. If the deck is in good condition, GangaRao says it will protect the larger structure from the corrosive effects of road salts and other chemicals.

GangaRao points out that the Fern Hollow Bridge’s decking was almost 10 years past its planned service period.

For community members like Shepard interested in taking action to protect and improve local bridges, GangaRao suggests reporting any visible issues to the appropriate authorities.

“I’m not at all saying one should take anything into their hands. Alerting the appropriate authorities will help a great deal,” he said.

Another thing he recommends is advocating for local bridges to be washed regularly.

But that still leaves questions for Shepard.

“I have to wonder why they’re still in poor condition, and why they haven’t been repaired,” Shepard said.

One of West Virginia’s most enduring symbols is a bridge: the New River Gorge Bridge. And while that great arch might get most of the world’s attention, the more than 7,000 other bridges in the state need some attention as well.

Bid Review Underway For 12 Highway Projects In West Virginia

West Virginia’s Division of Highways is reviewing bids for 12 projects including replacing an aging Ohio County bridge and replacing four older bridges in Roane County.

The agency said most projects are reviewed, analyzed and awarded within a week, but it can take longer.

The work includes replacing the Lewis Bridge in Valley Grove in Ohio County. The bridge was built in 1933 and is the second of four weight-restricted bridges to be replaced in the area.

Also included are Anmoore Bridge clean and painting project, Shinnston City Park walking trail and Michael Angiulli Memorial Bridge replacement in Harrison County; New Buzzard Ford Bridge replacement in Hardy County; Alton Deck Girder Bridge replacement in Upshur County; Lincoln Church of God pipe replacement and drainage in Lincoln County; Stoney Lonesome Road Bridge replacement, Tariff Bridge replacement, Blowntimber #1 Bridge replacement and Mud Fork Bridge replacement in Roane County; and Big Creek Bridge rehabilitation in Fayette County.

Advocates at Odds Over Increasing Truck Sizes, as Data Show 20 Percent of W.Va. Bridges 'Poor'

More than 1,400 bridges across West Virginia are in “poor” condition, according to the Federal Highway Administration. According to a new report by the agency, 1,444 bridges in the state, or nearly 20 percent, are in disrepair, the second highest rate in the country. Some advocacy groups are voicing concerns that the state’s infrastructure problems could worsen if a federal proposal to allow larger cargo trucks to hit the road is approved.

Advocacy groups are dueling over a proposal to increase the cap on the size of freight trucks allowed on the roads. The Coalition Against Bigger Trucks, an advocacy group, is asking Congress to oppose an increase in truck size or weight. According to a press release from the coalition, companies like Anheuser-Busch, Amazon and FedEx are lobbying Congress to increase size limits for trucks, from 28 feet to 33 feet.

A lobbying group that represents these companies, called Americans for Modern Transportation, argues their proposal would add capacity and efficiency and would not increase the current 80,000-pound federal cap on truck weight.

But some argue that even at their current weight limit, trucks are having a costly impact on local governments. Several officials in West Virginia recently signed a letter, asking that policy makers consider infrastructure costs big trucks put on local communities. 1000 other local government leaders across the country also signed the letter.

Store Reopening at West Virginia Center Marooned After Flood

A department store is reopening next month at a West Virginia shopping center that was marooned and shuttered after flooding last summer washed away an access bridge.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that spokesman Chris Brathwaite said the Kmart store at Crossings Mall in Elkview plans to reopen the first weekend in September with a grand reopening the following weekend.

The store and other businesses at the shopping center closed after the culvert bridge that was its only public access point washed out during the June 2016 flood. A new bridge was completed late last month.

Graffiti Suspects Avoid Charges by Repainting Bridge

Rather than charging five people accused of spray-painting graffiti along a Mercer County bridge, authorities say they had them repaint it instead.

Mercer County Commissioner Greg Puckett tells WVVA-TV that he, Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ash and Chief Deputy Darrell Bailey agreed to allow the five suspects to avoid misdemeanor charges by fixing what they had done.

All five completed their work along the bridge over Eads Mill Road in Princeton on Sunday.

Several cameras have been installed on and around the bridge to keep it clean.