Over the past 29 months most motorists traveling east and west along Interstate 70 in Ohio County have been forced to reduce their speed to as low as 35 mph while crews with Swank Construction have extensively rehabilitated 26 bridges and ramps from the West Virginia/Ohio border to beyond the Elm Grove neighborhood of Wheeling.
Many of those who failed to do so, according to Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard, were cited for speeding as fast as 105 mph.
“Most of the tickets our deputies issued with for speeds between 70 and 90 mph, but some of the drivers were caught traveling at a much quicker rate,” Howard said. “I requested the reductions to ensure the safety of the Swank employees, but some motorists were only worried about themselves, and they paid for it.”
The $214 million project is one of several roadway improvements under W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice’s “Roads to Prosperity” initiative. The constitutional amendment to allow for the sale of $1.6 billion in bonds was approved by 73 percent of voters in the Mountain State in November 2017. The work on Interstate 70 was expected to begin in 2019, but the governor trashed the first set of bids received and did not issue a request for new proposals until early 2020.
Once the schedule for the I-70 repairs and replacements was finalized by Division of Highways officials, Howard began requesting a 45-mph speed limit for the entire 14.5-mile stretch of freeway. In the area of Wheeling Tunnel, where the speed limit already was 45 mph, Howard requested that it be lowered by 10 mph.
Those speed limits, Howard confirmed, will remain in effect until at least the end of October.
“That is when all of the construction is expected to finish, so those speed limits will stay where they are until Swank completely pulls out of the area,” the sheriff explained. “It was a long process getting them lowered, and it had to go all the way to the federal level, and give Paul Hicks with the Division of Highways a lot of credit. He did most of that work.
“I have been asked several times why the speed limits are still lowered in the areas where it appears the work is finished, but that’s one of the rules the Federal Highways Administration has in place. They also mandate that if the speed limit is lowered on the westbound side of the interstate, it has been lowered on the eastbound side, too.”
Finished Product
One portion of the enormous project that worried Ohio County the most was the replacements of the two Fulton bridges. It was determined by inspectors the piers and decking on both spans needed to be demolished and reconstructed, and Howard did not believe the timelines were realistic.
“As soon as I saw the scheduled for those bridges, I thought we were in for a nightmare,” he admitted. “And then when the pandemic began just a few months after they started, I really believe this three-year project was going to last six years. But those crews proved me wrong; that’s for sure.
“But I’ve been impressed. Those new Fulton bridges went right up like they were supposed to, and both of them were finished ahead of schedule,” Howard said. “I did not believe that was possible, but that’s exactly what took place, and I have to give Swank and their employees the credit they deserve.”
Construction continues in Elm Grove, where Interstate 470 merges with I-70, and crews can be seen working on the Fort Henry Bridge seven days per week.
“The bridges in Elm Grove were the ones where you could see plywood on the bottoms of them because holes had formed all the way through them,” Howard recalled. “They were really in bad shape, so that’s why those two bridges have been pretty much replaced, too, and that’s why we have had some issues with congestion and some accidents in that area of the interstate.
“The Fort Henry Bridge had not been completely renovated for a lot of years, so I expect work to continue on it probably up until October,” he said. “Along with painting it, the crews have replaced the decking and the curbs because of how big of a mess it was when they started. They found a lot more wrong with the interstate in that area than they anticipated.”
Coal Mining
There is one stretch of Interstate 70 where the speed limit will be reduced from time to time even after the “Roads to Prosperity” project is completed.
Just beyond the 11-mile marker between Dallas Pike and the border with Pennsylvania, Tunnel Ridge has been mining beneath I-70 for the past two years. According to Howard, that process is expected to continue into 2025 before it moves west toward residential areas near Dallas Pike.
“The speed limit in that area will be down to 45 mph when the coal mining is taking place, and then after the repair crews do what they have to do, the limit will go back up to 70 mph,” the sheriff explained. “That’s because of the effects the mining has on the roadway and why most of that stretch of I-70 has been repaved.
“I guess the seam of coal in that area is pretty wide, and that is why a lot of the interstate has had to be fixed because the mining has made the road drop in areas,” Howard said. “I do know the people with Tunnel Ridge have worked well with the DOH, so at least local motorists can be informed what to expect at certain times.”
