Tony Clark, West Virginia Division of Highways District 6 engineer, said Friday the DOH still does not have an approximate date for the pending closure, though it could come as early as next month.

The closure was originally slated to begin last June, but was delayed because of the ongoing I-70 Bridges Project and its related road closures and detours.

Now that much of that project has been completed, West Virginia Division of Highways officials feel more comfortable in moving forward with the Stone Bridge closure.

“The closure being delayed was definitely helpful with all the work going on last year with the I-70 project,” said District 6 Engineer Tony Clark on Friday.

Clark noted motorists will be given plenty of notice before the closure actually happens.

The Stone Bridge closure, which is expected to last until October, will allow for the rehabilitation of the bridge deck, along with the repointing of the stone piers on the historic bridge.

The planned future detour will direct motorists to use Exits 4 or 5 to Washington Avenue and loop back. Which exit a motorist uses will depend on which side of the bridge they are located on.

“Getting onto I-70 on Exit 5 has been tricky with the (I-70) work going on there. There could be a little overlap in the detour if the bridge has to be closed before the Elm Grove interchange is completed.”

Local motorists who already have their own shortcuts or detours in mind likely will use Lumber Avenue and Junior Avenue to get around the bridge closure. However, the DOH cannot use those roads as official detours because they are not part of the state road system, Clark said.

Clearwater Construction of Mercer, Pennsylvania, was hired by the state to do the Stone Bridge job.

Built in 1817 by pioneer Col. Moses Shepherd as part of the National Road, the Stone Bridge, also known as Monument Place Bridge, is the oldest bridge in the state of West Virginia.

The Stone Bridge, which spans Little Wheeling Creek, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on Aug. 21, 1981. Concrete sidewalks were added to it in 1931. In 1958, a concrete veneer was added to the structure. Since then, parts of the veneer have fallen off, revealing the stone masonry underneath.