The Top Stories of 2020: I-70 Significantly Impacted by Highway Projects in 2020

WHEELING -- Whether it was the ongoing construction of the $215 million Interstate 70 Bridges Project or traffic delays brought on by a longwall mining project near the Pennsylvania state line, one thing is for sure: I-70 was significantly impacted by two separate highway projects in Ohio County in 2020.

As Swank Construction crews are scheduled to take a break over the holidays on the I-70 Bridges Project, the project is one that saw significant progress in different areas of Ohio County over the past 11 months. That progress came despite a two-week halt in construction in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

West Virginia Division of Highways District 6 Engineer Tony Clark said he continues to be astounded by the amount of progress the general contractor has made this year with the I-70 Bridges Project despite the challenges they've encountered in the midst of the pandemic. The project includes the rehabilitation of 24 bridges with the full replacement of several structures over a two year span. The project includes building new decks or overlaying an existing deck and making any necessary steel or substructure repairs.

While construction began on the bridges project in the fall of 2019, it was back in February of this year when motorists traveling west on the highway found themselves either traveling the I-470 West "through" detour or being diverted onto National Road and over Wheeling Hill on the "local" detour, as demolition began on several spans near Tunnel Green known as the "I-70 Fulton Bridges. That section of highway was reopened to traffic ahead of the scheduled Nov. 1 deadline, with the Mount de Chantal Bridge section opening a few weeks later.

The I-70 Bridges Project is scheduled to ramp back up following the holidays, as the eastbound side of the highway at the Fulton Bridges is expected to be closed from Feb. 1-Nov. 1, 2021, with work resuming on the eastbound section of the bridges. Clark said Swank Construction has been able to do "phase construction" in different areas on both sides of the highway despite the highway closures with the Fulton Bridges.

In addition to the I-70 Bridges Project, motorists faced single lane traffic on both sides of I-70 between the Dallas Pike exit and the Pennsylvania State Line once again as the Tunnel Ridge Coal Company made another longwall mining pass beneath the highway in June of this year. Motorists encountered long delays on the interstate near the West Virginia Welcome Center in 2019 on two separate occasions as a result of the longwall mining operations.

The welcome center building was also closed in mid-April this year when The Hughes Corporation of Sycamore, Pennsylvania, began mitigation work on the welcome center in an effort to minimize structural damage to the building as a result of possible ground subsidence from mining being performed hundreds of feet beneath the site. The mitigation work on the center included segmenting the building into the three sections.

In late May, the current longwall panel encroached beneath the embankment on the eastbound side of the highway before moving beneath the highway and welcome center in June. Repairs were made to a small segment of the highway in that area before it was repaved in August.

The welcome center building is scheduled to remain closed until the next longwall panel passes beneath that location sometime over the next couple of months and any necessary repairs and mitigation work is performed on the structure, according to West Virginia Division of Highways Area Engineer Mike Witherow. The welcome center parking area and portable toilet stalls remain available to passing motorists while the welcome center building remains closed.

According to Witherow, the coal company has a few more longwall panels scheduled to move beneath the highway in the area between the welcome center and the Dallas Pike exit over the next couple of years.