Construction on 26 bridges along West Virginia’s Wheeling corridor of Interstate 70 will be handled by Swank Construction Company, under a contract recently awarded by the West Virginia Department of Transportation.
The construction encompasses upgrades and replacements meant to rehabilitate this section of the interstate, improving safety and structural integrity, as well as increasing pedestrian access along the way. The project is also part of the Roads to Prosperity program.
“There were probably people in this area who thought, ‘Well, seeing as how the bids came in so high and they rejected the bid, our bridges are never gonna be fixed.’ And we absolutely knew everything to the contrary of that,” Gov. Jim Justice said. “Every single project, we can now say without any question whatsoever, they’re all gonna be done.”
While a different bid had won the contract, the initial $275.16 million proposal came back much higher than anticipated. The prompted a rejection from Justice and a reworking of the contract. Swank’s winning bid comes in at $214.65 million, with work scheduled to begin this year. As a whole, the project is expected to take at least three years.
“Our bridges got in this shape over decades of neglect, decades of being 50th. In all honesty, that’s the problem; when you don’t have any money, you can’t fix anything,” Justice said.