The Bellaire Bridge or Interstate Bridge is a privately owned, closed cantilever truss toll bridge that spans the Ohio River between Benwood, West Virginia and Bellaire, Ohio. It provided a link for commuters between southern Ohio border towns and West Virginia steel mills from 1926 to 1991. It was closed in 1991 when the state of Ohio paid to demolish the Ohio approach to allow for the SR-7 freeway to be constructed.
The bridge continues to rust away and seems to be a hazard to navigation, but efforts to demolish the bridge have been stymied either by cost or by difficulties in negotiations with the private owners.
https://goo.gl/maps/UhXciZtScoBWVYdG7 (https://goo.gl/maps/UhXciZtScoBWVYdG7)
Wikipedia has a good article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellaire_Bridge
How much is the scrap value of steel these days considering high inflation in the last couple of years? I guess money made from selling the bridge's steel as scrap still doesn't exceed the cost of demolishing it?
If they were going to do it for the scrap steel value it should have been like 2012 when scrap metal prices were even higher and demo cost was certainly lower.
Quote from: hwyfan on November 12, 2022, 07:45:28 PM
The Bellaire Bridge or Interstate Bridge is a privately owned, closed cantilever truss toll bridge that spans the Ohio River between Benwood, West Virginia and Bellaire, Ohio. It provided a link for commuters between southern Ohio border towns and West Virginia steel mills from 1926 to 1991. It was closed in 1991 when the state of Ohio paid to demolish the Ohio approach to allow for the SR-7 freeway to be constructed.
The bridge continues to rust away and seems to be a hazard to navigation, but efforts to demolish the bridge have been stymied either by cost or by difficulties in negotiations with the private owners.
https://goo.gl/maps/UhXciZtScoBWVYdG7 (https://goo.gl/maps/UhXciZtScoBWVYdG7)
I'm more used to this view: https://goo.gl/maps/4gUPiwYWuT6zgBs77