Crews have begun work to expand a two-lane section of W.Va. 2 just south of Wellsburg to include turn lanes leading to the future span. The highway has been reduced to one lane and temporary traffic signals installed to maintain two-way traffic.

West Virginia highway officials have encouraged drivers to proceed through the area cautiously and expect delays.

Crews also recently installed girders extending from the bridge’s main span to the area of Brilliant where its Ohio abutment will be built.

John Hendrickson, area operations manager for the Flatiron Corp. — contractor for the $131 million project — said a 250-ton all-terrain crane was used to lower the 54,000-pound girders in place over Ohio 7.

The section of highway was closed for three nights to accommodate the maneuver.

Each about 144 feet long, the girders rest on bearings just west of Ohio 7 atop a mound of about 170,000 cubic yards, or 238,000 tons, of dirt and rock used to fill a ravine between the highway and Third Street in Brilliant.

Officials with the West Virginia Division of Highways said much of the dirt was taken from the hillside south of Brilliant when it was excavated to address recurring rock slides there.

Hendrickson said this fall, crews will build retaining walls on each side of the highway beneath the connecting girders.

He said the walls will be about 180 feet long and stand up to 18 feet.

Hendrickson said crews have widened the intersection of Third and Cleaver streets to allow the addition of turn lanes for the bridge.

The work included relocating utility lines and adding drainage structure and guardrails.

Hendrickson said crews soon will be pouring concrete for the deck and confirmed November remains the anticipated month of completion.

On the West Virginia side, crews have been working on a half-mile-long retaining wall along the west side of W.Va. 2 that also will allow the highway to be widened toward the river.

Working with engineers with RS&H of Toledo and COWI of New York, Flatiron suggested the move to eliminate the need to excavate the adjacent hillside, reducing the project’s cost.

The wall is comprised of long steel beams, called pilings, drilled into the hillside below and wide steel panels, known as lagging, inserted between them.

The biggest spectacle in the project’s development has been the transport, by four barges, of the bridge’s 830-foot-long, 4,000-ton main section from the south end of Wellsburg, where it was built, to its innermost piers, onto which it was lifted from about 80 feet below using hydraulic jacks.

Once completed, the bridge will extend 1,800 feet and include one lane each for west- and eastbound traffic and a lane for bicyclists leading to the Brooke County Pioneer Trail below.

A committee of public officials and community members chose the Wellsburg-Brilliant crossing from several possible locations for the span.

They cited a need to provide another transportation artery when rock slides impact traffic on W.Va. 2 or Ohio 7 in that area and a potential boost to economic development there.

The new bridge will be near the Beech Bottom Industrial Park, which is co-owned by the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle, and other land north of it the economic development agency said has much potential.