Evening Closures Planned For I-470 at Bethlehem
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WHEELING -- The final steps for the reconstruction of the Spruce Street and Chapel Road bridges in Bethlehem will come with overnight closures of Interstate 470 over the next few weeks.
Beginning today, the eastbound lanes on I-470 will be closed at the Bethlehem exit each night through Sept. 18, while one westbound lane will also be closed evenings.
The closures begin will begin each night at 10 p.m. and continue until about 5 a.m., West Virginia Division of Highways officials said.
While the Spruce Street Bridge reopened to traffic last week after being closed for nearly a year, the Chapel Road Bridge is closed to allow crews to install fencing and pain the structure. The upcoming lane closures are needed to finish that work on the Chapel Road Bridge.
"So far, everything seems to be going well," DOH District 6 Engineer Tony Clark said. "They're just doing the work now on Chapel Road that they couldn't do previously. …. It's moving along fairly well.
Clark said they hope the closures will cause only minimal congestion because eastbound traffic will be directed by signs at St. Clairsville to remain on Interstate 70. The hill up I-470 will be open to the ramp, Clark said, and traffic will be able to take W.Va. 88 as the detour.
"It's not too bad to get off on that ramp and get on 88 and get back on," Clark said. "Just like every other closure, we've got signage at the split in St. Cairsville directing people to 70 at night."
Westbound traffic should not be severely impacted because there will only be partial lane closures in that direction.
"This essentially is an extension of the same closure that we did previously," Clark said.
The work is part of a $6.1 million project to rehabilitate both bridges.
Meanwhile, Clark said work is proceeding well on the "I-70 Bridges Project" and reconstruction of the westbound Fulton Bridges.
He expects the work to be completed on schedule by November before crews begin rebuilding the eastbound Fulton Bridge near the Wheeling Tunnel.
"Everything is flowing just fine (at Fulton Bridges project)," Clark said. "Everything is moving along as expected. With any big project, there are some hiccups, but everything seems to be on track."