The West Virginia Department of Transportation is hosting a public forum on replacing the Dunbar toll bridge

The West Virginia Department of Transportation is beginning the public engagement process for the Dunbar Toll Bridge project.

WVDOT held its first public meeting where community members could ask questions and get information about potential plans for the bridge.

The Dunbar Toll Bridge, which connects the communities of Dunbar and South Charleston, was built in 1953, and Travis Long, WVDOT’s director of technical support and services, says he understands the workload and the importance of the bridge.

“This is a historic event, very important to these two communities, South Charleston and Dunbar,” Long said Tuesday night. “About 15,000 vehicles use it a day, maybe about 100 people as well, so there is a pedestrian aspect to it. It brings these communities together and has been doing so for years.”

Although the bridge is historic, it requires attention as rust has been visible throughout the steel over the years and the entire structure has been considered outdated.

Rick Atkinson, a longtime South Charleston resident, says he has enjoyed great use of the bridge over the years, but realizes it will likely need to be replaced.

“There is no doubt that the bridge needs to be replaced, it is almost 70 years old,” Atkinson said before entering the public forum. “I walk over it often and find it has design flaws.”

Long says the bridge is in such a condition that routine maintenance will not allow further work to be done.

“We’ve gotten to the age where rehab just isn’t working, so we have to make some decisions,” Long said. “We are considering five alternatives.”

The alternatives WVDOT presented Tuesday evening are as follows:

• No compilation or “do nothing” but continue with routine maintenance
• Rehabilitation in the current location
• Exchange in the same place
• Exchange in a parallel place, slightly to the east

Long says the type of steel structure being built on the bridge was not unusual at the time, but the structures appear to have become more noticeably damaged over the years.

“Historically, they are also prone to rusting and deteriorating over time,” Long said. “They can withstand any type of weather, and right now we’re leaning more towards below-deck or below-deck truss, so all the steel will be below the deck, maybe it’ll be protected a little better, maybe it’ll last a little longer.”

Additionally, the Dunbar Toll Bridge presents additional maintenance challenges that most modern bridges do not.

“They are really hard to work with,” Long said. “You will see us working on the bridge many times. We’ll split the bridge in half, move traffic to one side while we build the new bridge, and then move it back. You’ll find that on I-64 and I-79 this is a very common thing we do these days. This bridge is not suitable for this type of construction. We can’t do this.”

While no decisions are scheduled before the end of the year, Long says the public turnout was a great start to a long process.

“We were overwhelmed and that’s what we want to see. The worst thing we can do is make people disinterested and then be surprised, so we want to engage with them now,” Long said. “We’ve talked to property owners who live right under the bridge, we’ve talked to property owners who live across Dunbar on the lower end towards the Institute, and then we’ve talked to property owners in South Charleston and business owners here in South Charleston, so that’s what it’s intended to serve.”

Long and other WVDOT staff said they expect future public forums on the bridge.