CHARLESTON — Construction workers are praying for sunny days and warm temperatures as they put the finishing touches on the Corridor D bridge, a one-of-a-kind architectural feat that runs over the Ohio River and over Blennerhassett Island.
Work on the bridge began in June 2006, and highway officials predicted it would be completed by this past September.
The work schedule was tight to begin with, and bad weather slowed things down, said Kip Hall, project manager for the state Department of Transportation.
"Mother Nature didn't cooperate with us last fall," he said. "It was a tight completion time."
Workers need no rain, no wind and for temperatures to hover between 50 and 85 degrees to install a 2-inch overlay of modified concrete on the structure, one of the final steps in the project, Hall said.
The concrete prevents precipitation from penetrating the road, Hall said.
Even with the setbacks, work on the project has continued every day.
When the weather does not cooperate, workers install electrical wiring.
State Division of Highways officials have not announced when the bridge will open, but said they will soon.
"We're close, but we're not there yet," Hall said. "If we can have a three-week stretch of good weather, then we'll be OK."
That's not to say the bridge will open in three weeks. Hall said even he does not know when officials plan to open it.
But he does expect to be home by summer, he said.
Home is three hours away from Parkersburg in Webster County.
Hall has been working on the bridge since last June when former project manager Julie Hott moved to Virginia to accept a job with the state government.
He gets to visit his wife only on weekends and misses his family, but loves the bridge.
"It is (tough), but I fell in love with this bridge," he said. "This is my other partner up here - this bridge."
The $120 million bridge is the last step in finishing Corridor D, a project that began in the late 1960s and that will make U.S. 50 four lanes from Clarksburg to Ohio, Hall said.
It's unique for a number of reasons.
The bridge, a tied-arch bridge, is 4,009 feet long and 100 feet wide and is the longest of its kind in the country, Hall said. A tied-arch bridge is a bridge in which the outward-directed horizontal forces of the arch are borne by the bridge deck, rather than the ground or the bridge foundations.
This bridge stands out for its arch, which measures about 900 feet long and features a series of criss-crossing cables, Hall said.
A walkway underneath the bridge for workers is one of the only ones to be made of fiberglass, Hall said.
It is also the first time any part of the public roads system will touch Blennerhassett Island, former home of Harmen Blennerhassett and now a popular tourist attraction accessible only by a sternwheeler.
The bridge includes no exit to the island, however. The island supports three of the bridge's 11 concrete piers on its western side, Hall said.
The move saved highway officials millions of dollars, Hall said.
The piers on Blennerhassett Island knocked the cost down from a potential $350 million to $120 million, Hall said.
Construction has generated little controversy in the Parkersburg-area, but building it was not an easy task.
"To use the island, we had to go to special provisions," Hall said.
For example, highway officials had to promise to plant a certain amount of trees once construction is finished.
They also had to contain their work to a certain area of the island, Hall said.
At first, workers used a series of connecting barges that served as a floating makeshift road over the river to carry heavy machinery, such as cranes, Hall said.
But the unexpected and rapid rising of water damaged the road, Hall said.
Most of the work on the piers was finished by that time, but a few tasks remain to be completed on the bridge.
Now workers will instead transport machinery via one barge that will travel across the river, Hall said.
Hall is one of many eagerly awaiting the bridge's completion.
"Give me good weather, and I'll give you a bridge," he said.
