The gradual deconstruction of the 60-year-old Donald M. Legg Memorial Bridge continues. Completed in December 1963, the four-lane cantilevered Warren through truss carried Interstate 64 over the Kanawha River between St. Albans and Nitro, West Virginia.
At the time of its construction, the Legg Memorial Bridge was noteworthy for being the widest ever constructed in the state, the first to have a center median strip topped with a 36-inch concrete riser and parapet dividing the four 12-foot traffic lanes. It was named after Donald Legg, a workman who fell to his death during its construction.
The widening of Interstate 64 between Huntington and Charleston, discussed since the 1990s, began in earnest in the 2000s, eventually leaving Legg Memorial Bridge as a four-lane bottleneck between six-lane segments. In November 2019, the West Virginia Department of Transportation awarded a $224.4 million design and build contract for a supplemental crossing to the Legg Memorial Bridge. The project involves building a new girder structure to carry westbound Interstate 64 traffic, rebuilding Legg Memorial Bridge for eastbound traffic, widening 3.7 miles of the interstate between Teays Valley and Nitro, and reconstructing the WV Route 817 interchange.
Construction on the project began in April 2021, with the new Nitro WWI Memorial Bridge opening in October 2022. Crews began dismantling the Legg Memorial Bridge in November after cutting the center 250-foot-long main span and lowering it with stand jacks to an awaiting barge. A new matching girder structure for eastbound traffic will be built in place of the removed superstructure.
