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DOH hopes overpass problems are behind them

WESTON, W.Va. — Additional strain and weather conditions are blamed for the destruction of a bridge deck in Lewis County over the weekend which created a sizable detour for those traveling from southern West Virginia toward the northern half of the state.

A chuck of the overpass right at the Weston exit of I-79 in the northbound lane broke away and exposed the rebar. The area was series of holes which was three to four feet wide and about 100 feet long according to Division of Highways personnel. It caused several flat tires on Friday night and left motorists in a bind before law enforcement and first responders were able to get there and shutdown the lanes.

“We evaluated the situation and determined we needed to use the contingency detour we had in place to repair it. We worked through the night to excavate the failed areas, tied the rebar in the shoulder area, and had concrete delivered the following morning,” said District Highways Engineer Brian Cooper.

The detour was already in place since the area is an active construction zone. Crews removed covers from the detour signs and the sent northbound traffic off the Interstate at South Weston, traveled U.S. Route 119 north and got back on the Interstate at Jane Lew. South bound traffic was not affected.

The damaged area was the original bridge shoulder since a new overpass is under construction. The stress of additional traffic and the heavy rain along with a series of freeze/thaw events took a toll on the concrete.

“It was actually in the original shoulder area and when we closed that bridge down to one lane we had to shift the traffic over and it just didn’t hold up,” Cooper said.

Crews took advantage of the detour and worked on other parts of the bridge as well to try to keep it from happening again.

“The problem was on the southbound bridge approach as you head north, but we evaluated the other side of the bridge while we had it shut down. We figured we would probably have problems with it eventually, so we went ahead and addressed both ends of the bridge while we had it shut down,” he said.

The area reopened Sunday afternoon





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