The West Virginia Parkways Authority will begin construction on the second of three planned Accelerated Bridge Deck Replacement (ABC) projects on the West Virginia Turnpike near Camp Creek beginning at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022. The bridge deck replacement, at milepost 16.93 southbound, is expected to be completed by Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
The project will utilize concrete deck panels fabricated off-site to greatly speed up construction and minimize inconvenience to the travelling public. ABC bridge deck projects take about two weeks as opposed to six months for typical on-site construction.
Contractors will close one lane at a time on the bridge to replace bridge decking. Once one lane is redecked, contractors will move to the other lane.
Jeff Miller, executive director of the West Virginia Parkways Authority, said Parkways is utilizing the same contractor that completed an ABC deck project on the Turnpike in September.
“The first one went well and was completed 30 hours ahead of schedule,” Miller said. “We’re excited to get these important projects done in such a short amount of time.”
The Parkways Authority schedules several ABC bridge projects every year. Projects are scheduled during the fall, when traffic counts are lower on the Turnpike.
The method costs a little more, but with such high traffic volumes on the West Virginia Turnpike, the Parkways Authority can’t tie up traffic on the Turnpike for lengthy construction projects if faster alternatives are available.