T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Beaver Excavating Company will soon begin work on Blaine Hill Bridge project

BLAINE — Beaver Excavating Company from Canton will begin working on the U.S. Route 40 Blaine Hill Bridge project in May.

ODOT District 11 spokeswoman Lauren Borell said that Beaver Excavating Company was the only company that bid on the project, so it will be awarded the contract within the next couple of weeks. She added that she will provide a specific start date following a pre-construction meeting with the contractor.

“We are anxiously anticipating the start of construction on this project, as we know that this is a vital project for the area,” she said. “And we will, of course, continue to keep folks down that way updated with any project updates and progress on the project as we continue throughout the duration of the project until completion.”

The total construction cost for the project is $17,016,026, which is $1,783,970 less than the original estimated cost.

This past July, ODOT restricted traffic on the Blaine Hill Bridge after the span showed structural issues that caused concern. Originally, ODOT only closed the westbound lanes of the span on U.S. 40 “out of an abundance of caution” while working to address structural deficiencies.

Soon, though, ODOT and the Ohio State Highway Patrol received multiple reports of drivers either not understanding or not obeying the posted signs and traveling west in the open eastbound lanes. According to ODOT, that behavior led to several close calls that could have caused life-threatening traffic collisions.

On Aug. 5, ODOT closed the bridge to all traffic while originally scheduling the construction to begin in 2027.

Following the closure, residents of communities such as Blaine, Wolfhurst, Barton and Bridgeport expressed that the closure is a major inconvenience for people who used National Road to travel back and forth to St. Clairsville and points farther west.

Nearby businesses have also reported that the closure has impacted their bottom lines.

In response to the residents’ voicing their frustration on the timeline, ODOT was able to move the project up to begin this summer.

Borell previously said that due to the project’s current state of development, ODOT was able to take the opportunity to streamline some of the processes, such as expediting the environmental assessments and project estimations.

“Over the course of the last several months, ODOT has worked diligently to expedite the plans for construction on this project, which advanced the project two years ahead of schedule so that we could be starting the project this spring,” she said.