NITRO, W.Va. — The main span of the new Nitro-St Albans bridge along I-64 is being put into place.
Contractors on Wednesday started lifting the span, which is five beams wide, 11 feet tall, and 314 feet long, along the new Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge.
The bridge will eventually carry all four lanes of eastbound traffic across the Kanawha River. The first new bridge to be constructed as part of the project is currently carrying both east and westbound motorists.
DOH District 1 Acting Construction Engineer Ryan Canfield said contractors can being preparing the new bridge for deck work once the beams are in place. He said similar has already been taking place on the approaches.
“If you’ve been in that area you’ve been seeing rebar going down and now this span is going into place where they can continue on their project and get the bridge deck on during the winter,” Canfield said.
The bridge under construction is identical to the other span. Canfield said that has helped during the construction.
“This is repetition for these guys. This is something we do on a smaller scale all over the place but this is just very grand,” he said.
Completion of the bridge is scheduled for spring 2024. It will replace the bridge which was built in 1967.
The $18 million bridge construction project is part of the larger $225 million dollar project in Governor Jim Justice’s “Roads to Prosperity” program to widen the interstate to six lanes from Nitro to the U.S. Route 35 interchange at Scott Depot.
The overall project involves the construction of nine new overpasses on I-64.
Canfield said the west side of the expansion project from the St. Albans exit into Putnam County will be completed first. He said the work should be done by next spring. The new Legg bridge will follow next summer and then work will be completed on the east side of the project near the Nitro exit and toward Cross Lanes. There’s a fall 2025 completion currently projected.
Work on the Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge started in Feb. 2022.