Photo/Scott McCloskey A bridge that will eventually span the Ohio River and connect the Wellsburg area to Brilliant is slowly beginning to take shape a year after the groundbreaking ceremony.

WELLSBURG — More than a year after its groundbreaking ceremony, the bridge that will eventually extend 1,600 feet across the Ohio River between Wellsburg and Brilliant is beginning to take shape along both sides of the river.

The span, referred to as the “Wellsburg Bridge” by West Virginia Division of Highway officials, is a $131 million project that will include 830-foot tied-arch span. The project is set for completion in late 2021.

According to Joe Juszczak, a West Virginia DOH district construction engineer, crews with the Flatiron Corp. of Broomfield, Colo., began assembling segments of the main tied-arch section of the bridge just a few weeks ago in a yard area along the river near Wellsburg. He said the first of what will eventually be five bridge piers is already visible on land on the Ohio side of the river. He said the remaining four piers are expected to begin taking shape in the water in the coming months.

Flatiron plans to build the largest part of the span near the bridge site and then lower it onto piers from 80 feet in the air using jacks positioned on barges. With an estimated weight of 4,000 tons, the tied-arch span is believed to be the heaviest structure to be lifted in such a way in the United States.

“So within the next year people will start seeing, as time goes on, more and more of the steel being shipped in the and the arch being built,” Juszczak said. “Once it is completed, which we are anticipating to be the fall of 2020, then it will be put on barges and floated down the river and jacked into place onto the piers.”

Juszczak said it should create for quite a sight late next year, when the tied-arch section of the bridge is hoisted high above the Ohio River and set in place.

“They will have a window of 72 hours to do that on the river. All river traffic will be shut down for that period,” Juszczak explained, while speaking about the main bridge lift, scheduled for next fall.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was on hand with Brooke County officials when ground was broke for the span in July 2018. Justice said the bridge is a collaboration of the West Virginia and Ohio departments of transportation, and both have drawn on federal highway money to finance it. The states have signed an agreement in which West Virginia, which owns the river, will pay 65 percent of the span’s cost. Ohio will pay the remaining 35 percent.

The project, which was awarded in 2016, was a “design build,” which means the contractor was responsible for designing the span within the parameters of what was provided to them by the DOH, according Juszczak. When finished, the bridge will extend across the river from W.Va. 2 about a mile south of Wellsburg to the intersection of Third and Clever streets near Ohio 7 in Brilliant.

Local studies have showed the need for the new bridge, citing the advancing age of the Market Street Bridge in Steubenville and the distance between the newer Veterans Memorial Bridge connecting Steubenville and Weirton and bridges in the Wheeling area. Officials have suggested the span would encourage economic development in the southern ends of Brooke and Jefferson counties, while offering another transportation artery in areas that have been plagued by rock slides.

Warren Scott contributed to this story.