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WEIRTON -- Bridge inspectors with the West Virginia Division of Highways say they will conduct an inspection of the Market Street Bridge late this month.
The bridge, connecting a point between Weirton and Follansbee with Steubenville, was closed Dec. 21 after an inspection showed suspension cables inside the cable anchorages of the almost 119-year-old span were deteriorating.
While no exact date for the inspection has been provided, WVDOH officials noted it will be done without a live load to gather as much data as possible.
"The freeze and thaw cycles between the inspection last month and the inspection at the end of January will help us determine our course of action on the bridge," said Tracy Brown, WVDOH state bridge engineer.
The bridge is supported by two steel cables. It was closed after inspectors found accelerated deterioration in sections of the cable anchorage on the upstream support cable. Each support cable is made up of 14 bundles of steel, with each bundle made up of 107 individual strands of wire, according to Stephen Johnson, director of the WVDOH Operations Division and state bridge inspection coordinator.
In June 2022, WVDOH bridge inspectors put the bridge on a three-month inspection cycle due to deterioration within the cable anchorages at the ends of the bridge. At that time, inspectors identified that one of the 14 bundles of wire on the upstream support cable had deteriorated inside the cable anchorage to the point where it was no longer able to do its job.
Although the cables have ample capacity to carry the weight of vehicles, deterioration in other parts of the bridge led WVDOH engineers to lower the weight limit to 3 tons in September.
Since June 2022, bridge inspectors have identified 10 other strands of wire breaking in other bundles.
on the bridge.
"In the first year of three-month inspections we lost four strands of wire," Johnson said. "In the last three months we went from four to 10."