A LONG TIME COMING — The new Ohio River bridge between the south ends of Brooke and Jefferson counties has been 25 years in development but also a project eyed for decades. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — When the new Ohio River bridge opens to traffic at about 9 a.m. Thursday, the West Virginia Department of Transportation expects it will be used by about 3,000 vehicles per day.

But on Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., it will be traversed by many during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon, a car show and other festivities on the 1,800-foot span, which will connect West Virginia Route 2 south of Wellsburg and Ohio Route 7 using Third Street in Brilliant.

It’s a moment that’s been a long time coming, with the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission providing the impetus for the span in 1998. Talk of a link between the southern ends of Brooke and Jefferson counties, however, dates to the 1920s.

More than once over the years, officials have considered a bridge for the area where a ferry transported many between Wellsburg and Brilliant between 1918 and 1948. Brooke County residents employed by the Cardinal Power Plant were sometimes known to row boats to their workplace.

But the advancing age of the Fort Steuben and Market Street bridges led local officials and community representatives with the BHJ to push for a new river crossing in 1998.

A study commissioned by BHJ in 2000 noted the Market Street Bridge, used initially by streetcars, and the Fort Steuben Bridge had opened in 1905 and 1928, respectively, and their futures were uncertain.

The latter bridge was demolished in 2012 while the Market Street Bridge underwent $16.5 million in renovations, completed in 2011, to extend its life.

The span had long been closed to truck traffic and last week, its vehicular weight limit was reduced further to 3 tons.

The 2000 study noted that should the Veterans Memorial Bridge, completed in 1990, be closed even temporarily, the closest river crossings are 25 miles north and south.

A second study in 2003 considered several locations for the proposed new span, with a link between Brilliant and an area south of Wellsburg receiving the most support from a committee of about 30 public officials and community members appointed to the task.

The ability to divert traffic to a river crossing when state Routes 2 or 7 were closed by rock slides, a recurring problem in those areas, and opportunities for economic development on both sides of the river were among reasons cited for the choice.

Brooke County officials have pointed to available space at the Beech Bottom Industrial Park and unused land between the river and Route 2 for growth opportunities.

Public comment also was accepted at meetings held in 2012 at the former Wellsburg Middle School and Buckeye North Elementary School.

The West Virginia and Ohio departments of transportation each contributed to the cost of the two studies, and each state also has provided funds for the $131 million development and construction of the new bridge.

West Virginia — as the owner of the Ohio River within its border — provided 65 percent, while Ohio provided 35 percent. Both drew on federal money allocated to them for transportation projects.

Former U.S. Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller had secured $18 million in federal money for its planning and construction.

In 2016, the Flatiron Corp. of Broomfield, Colo., was chosen from three potential builders for the span after submitting the lowest bid. The company had built the John James Audubon Bridge, which stretches 3,186 feet across the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, La., in 2011, and the St. Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis, a 1,216-foot-long, 10-lane concrete bridge supported by three piers, each 70 feet tall.

Working with engineers RS&H of Toledo and COWI of New York, Flatiron proposed a tied arch design for the bridge. Such bridges often are called bowstring spans because they consist of an overhead arch and deck and resemble a bow being drawn to fire an arrow.

As an alternative to excavating the hillside adjacent to Route 2, they suggested building a half-mile long retaining wall along the highway’s west side, expanding it toward the river.

The wall is comprised of long steel pilings that were drilled into the hillside below and wide steel panels, known as lagging, inserted between them.

Pilings also were used to hold together crushed rock dumped between Route 7 and the bridge’s Brillant approach. The rock had been removed during an excavation project necessitated by slides along the highway.

The intersection of Third and Cleaver streets at Brilliant’s south end was reconfigured to accommodate traffic to and from the bridge. New turn lanes were created, and traffic signals, guardrails and drainage structures added.

Turn lanes also were added to Route 2 near the bridge, which will have four lanes: One each for west- and eastbound traffic, one for turning at each end and one for bicyclists to access the Brooke County Pioneer Trail below.

Established on a former railroad bed, the paved trail overlooks the Ohio River and leads south to the Wheeling Heritage Trail and north to Wellsburg’s Yankee Trail.

State highway officials have stated a paved link from the bridge to the trail is expected to be completed in November.

Many area residents will recall seeing the bridge’s 830-foot main span being conveyed by barges from a work yard below Wellsburg’s Smith Oil station, where it was built, to its current site.

Once there, the 4,100-ton structure was lifted by large, hydraulic jacks onto its piers 80 feet above the water.

From there, its 60-foot deck and connections to its West Virginia and Ohio approaches were completed.

Just as many turned out to view the span’s transport along the river, Wednesday’s celebration is expected to draw spectators from both states.