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If you've been following our reports during the past few weeks on today's event at the new bridge between Wellsburg and Brilliant, to be followed by Thursday's opening, it's easy to understand just why its completion marks such an important milestone. Aside from being one of only a handful of spans linking West Virginia to Ohio, the new bridge also closes a chapter several decades in the making, with much of the groundwork going back to the days when the late Robert C. Byrd still commanded the halls of the U.S. Senate.
The bridge's first discussion came in 1998 when the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission began to consider a link between the southern ends of Brooke and Jefferson counties. A few years later, Byrd and Sen. Jay Rockefeller secured funding for a study. Work continued behind the scenes for more than a decade, and in 2016 the state awarded the bridge contract to the Flatiron Corp. for $131 million.
Ground was broken in 2018, with the main span floated into place in April 2021. And now, just about two and one-half years later, the structure is finished and ready for traffic.
There's an easy argument that this is just a bridge paid for by the taxpayers, so what's the cause for celebration? But for many, this span will improve their quality of life by making it easier to access the places they need to travel. It will take time to understand what impact it might have on Wellsburg and Follansbee if traffic diverts away from those towns, as well as to Brilliant and other points on the Ohio side of the river.
But those issues are for the future -- for now let's celebrate the completion of this project.