The West Virginia Parkways Authority will begin construction of the third of three Accelerated Bridge Deck Replacement (ABC) projects on the West Virginia Turnpike near Ghent beginning at 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. The bridge deck replacement, in the southbound lanes just south of the toll plaza, is expected to be completed by Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022.
The project will utilize concrete deck panels fabricated off-site to greatly speed up construction and minimize inconvenience to the travelling public.
“Due to the volume of traffic the West Virginia Turnpike has daily, it is imperative that disruption of traffic is always as minimal as possible,” said Jeff Miller, executive director of the Parkways Authority.
Construction is expected to take seven days using the ABC method as opposed to up to six months for conventional on-site construction. “The contractors work 24-7 for those seven days,” Miller said. “It’s pretty impressive.”
It is the third accelerated bridge deck replacement project on the Turnpike this fall. The first two projects were finished ahead of schedule.
“The contractors have done a phenomenal job,” Miller said. “We’re able to fit in a third deck replacement this year.”
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.
Miller said drivers may experience delays in the construction zone during peak traffic times. However, the date for construction was intentionally picked to have as little impact on traffic as possible.
“We try to do these projects after Labor Day, when traffic volume is down a little bit,” Miller said.
The Parkways Authority schedules several ABC bridge projects every year. 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.