Downtown Wheeling I-70 Ramp To Reopen Tuesday
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WHEELING -- Motorists who have been missing the more direct route to downtown Wheeling won't have to wait much longer to use it again.
The downtown Interstate 70 exit to Main Street from the Fort Henry Bridge is scheduled to reopen to traffic on Tuesday, said Tony Clark, engineer with the West Virginia Division of Highways, District 6.
The exit was closed to allow workers with Swank Construction to refinish the concrete surface and other steel-related work.
The work is part of the ongoing I-70 Bridges Project.
"The ramp itself is a bridge. They did some steel repairs on that and some other repairs to the substructure. And they did a concrete overlay to the surface itself," he said. "Basically it's the same kind of rehab work that's happening all over the project."
Clark said the contractor was given 120 days to complete the ramp work while it was closed to traffic. The work could not be done with one lane open at a time because the space was too tight, he added.
Until it reopens next week, motorists will continue to use the next available exit just outside the Wheeling Tunnel. It connects to W.Va. 2 and eventually to the 16th Street downtown Wheeling exit.
The $214 million West Virginia Division of Highways I-70 Bridges project involves the rehabilitation of 26 different bridges along I-70 from the Ohio state line through to the Middle Creek Road area. Work is expected to be finished next October.
The Swank Construction Co., of Kensington, Pennsylvania, was the winning bidder for the project back in July 2019. The work began in Fall 2019 and has consisted of replacing concrete and steel beams in the bridges.
Clark noted next Wednesday the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 at Exit 5/Elm Grove that had been closed for repair work are scheduled to reopen as well.
Philip Stahl, spokesman of the Wheeling Police Department, said overall there have been few major traffic accidents during the I-70 Bridges project.
"Overall there have been little to no issues since the Fulton Bridge reopened," Stahl said Wednesday. "Occasionally there has been a minor crash on the Fort Henry Bridge or in the Elm Grove area, but it's really been going pretty good," he said.
Stahl noted at times the Wheeling Tunnel does get backed up.
"Nothing has been too bad the last couple weeks or so," he said. "We're in the seventh-inning stretch. We're almost through it. That doesn't mean people can't slow down. It's still a very active area of the interstate."