NITRO, W.Va. —The Interstate 64 bridge eastbound at Nitro in Kanawha County will be closed until at least Saturday.
State Division of Highways officials announced the busy bridge’s eastbound closure after an expansion joint failure in those lanes of the span.
State DOH bridge engineer Tracy Brown said at a presser Thursday that he believes one of the bolts was rusted and it probably broke or fell off and another one did the same thing.
He continued by saying that a joint was shaking back and forth when the construction superintendent got to the site after an emergency call.
“I’ve dealt with bridges for 20 some years and I’ve never seen one fall apart this quickly,” Brown said. “Of course concrete doesn’t give you a whole lot of warning when it fails, it at all.”
Bridge Incident on I-64 EB at Mile Marker 45.0. 2 of 2 eastbound lanes are closed. Comments:
Kanawha Co- I-64 EB MM 45 Closed, use detours. Emergency repairs in progress, Use Route 60, expect significant delays. pic.twitter.com/1VStnUDIru— West Virginia 511 (@WV511) February 6, 2020
At the press conference, Brown promised the public that all of the state’s open bridges are safe. The last inspection of this bridge’s inspection came in 2018.
Motorists coming toward Charleston are being directed to US Route 60 and the DOH is urging motorists to get off the interstate early and head to 60 either at the Milton, Hurricane or Teays Valley exits. Motorists will be forced off at the St. Albans exit.
Some of the back-ups Thursday afternoon were reported to be four hours for some motorists.
The DOH said it could take until at least Saturday afternoon to make the necessary repairs. The bridge’s westbound lanes are open.
“We will try to have it back open,” Brown said. “I think it’s a good conservative estimate. If we can get it done sooner than that, we will get it done sooner. There is a lot of unknowns when we start tearing into this. We don’t know what we are going to get into, it may be a bigger task that what we see now.”
MetroNews Reporter Jake Flatley contributed to this story