West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH) bridge crews continue work on the Jennings Randolph Bridge in Chester. Currently, engineers and inspectors are testing and evaluating the span so that repairs can be made as quickly as possible and the bridge can be reopened to traffic.
Engineers will work over the weekend planning further repairs.
The Jennings Randolph Bridge was built in 1977 using T-1 steel. At the time, welded T-1 steel was common in bridge construction, but it was later discovered that cracks could develop in the welds joining the beams. Cracks in T-1 steel welds led to the closure of the Interstate 64 Sherman Minton Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2011, and the Interstate 40 Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis in 2021.
Recently, the federal government required specialized testing on all bridges made with T-1 steel. Special testing on bridges made with T-1 steel has since been conducted on bridges all over the United States.
It was during one of those tests that a few cracks were discovered in welds on the Jennings Randolph Bridge. Because the cracks could cause safety issues in the future, the WVDOH shut the bridge down to repair the cracks.
Additional cracking may be present inside some of the steel box beams on the Jennings Randolph Bridge. WVDOH bridge crews are making access holes inside the box beams to allow inspectors inside the bridge to confirm whether or not more cracks are present. If more cracks are found, additional repairs will be needed.
There are five bridges made with T-1 steel in West Virginia. All have been tested, and the Jennings Randolph Bridge is the only one with issues requiring closure of the bridge.
On Friday, December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed under the weight of holiday traffic, killing 46 people. As a result of the unexpected collapse of the Silver Bridge, federal officials instituted a National Bridge Safety Inspection program to keep a similar tragedy from occurring again.
“This shows that our bridge inspection program works,” said WVDOH State Bridge Engineer Tracy Brown, P.E. “Our entire national bridge inspection program is based on what happened 56 years ago today. It’s because of our aggressive bridge safety inspections that we can proactively address deficiencies like those we found on the Jennings Randolph Bridge instead of reacting to a serious safety issue.”
