Contractors recently lifted the main span of the Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge in Nitro, W.Va., into place.
The span, measuring five beams wide and 417 feet long, was pre-assembled and lifted into place from a barge in the middle of the Kanawha River.
Once completed, the bridge will span between the Nitro and St. Albans exits off Interstate 64. It is being constructed north of the existing bridge to carry westbound traffic.
The existing bridge will be rebuilt using a portion of the existing piers to carry eastbound traffic.
Both bridges will be four lanes wide.
The project, paid for through Gov. Jim Justice’s $2.8 billion Roads to Prosperity program, is part of an approximately $225 million plan to upgrade I-64 to six lanes from Nitro to the US 35 exit. The Roads to Prosperity program also includes the construction of five other bridges.
Since the plan’s introduction in 2017, more than 1,000 Roads to Prosperity projects have been completed. Projects range from repairing small slips on rural roads to multi-million dollar four-lane highway construction projects.
Other Roads to Prosperity projects scheduled to be completed this year include an approximately $220 million project to replace or upgrade 26 bridges on Interstate 70 in the Wheeling area.