The East Huntington Bridge crosses the Ohio River bertween Huntington, West Virginia and Proctorville, Ohio. The cable-stayed crossing was the first of its type in the state and the third in the nation.
Discussions of a second Ohio River crossing between Huntington and Ohio were in full swing by 1972, but there was controversy over the proposed location. The Huntington city comprehensive plan called for the construction of such a bridge further upriver outside of the city limits, directly linked to Interstate 64 and forming an eastern bypass of the metropolitan area. Others favored a site through Lewis Hollow one mile north of Huntington along WV Route 2. Both locations would feature a two-lane bridge with a projected $16 million construction cost.
Upon further evaluation, the Coast Guard requested a realignment of the piers, calling for two piers instead of one central pier for a wider river navigation channel. One pier was moved closer to the Ohio shore while another was moved from the West Virginia bank 300 feet into the river.
Construction of the East Huntington Bridge began in 1983, and it was completed in August 1985 at the cost of $38 million. The span, designed by Arvid Grant & Associates of Olympia, Washington, David Goodyear, and Holger S. Svensson of Stuttgart, Germany, with Leonhardt, Andrä & Partners of Stuttgart serving as consulting engineers, was the first bridge of its type in West Virginia, and only the third in the United States. 1 It was also the second concrete cable-stayed bridge in the world.
At the south approach in Huntington, the bridge exits onto US Route 60 and WV Route 2. A later phase would have extended the approach further to the junction of US Route 60 and 8th Avenue.
Information
- State: Ohio, West Virginia
- Route: WV Route 106
- Type: Cable-Stay Suspension
- Status: Active - Automobile
- Total Length: 3,787 feet
- Main Span Length: 900 feet
- Spans:
- Deck Width: 30 feet
- Total Height: 360 feet
- Above Vertical Clearance: 33 feet
- Navigational Clearance:
Sources
- “Points of Interest .” Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau, 16 Mar. 2004.