Wheeling Tunnel closes for construction

If you are traveling through Wheeling to get to Ohio or Pennsylvania, you may want to rethink your travel route. The Eastbound lane of the Wheeling Tunnel officially closed to traffic on Thursday to re-start a multi-million dollar renovation project.

The Wheeling Tunnel serves as a gateway to Wheeling from Interstate 70 in Ohio. It’s the area's most heavily traveled road.

The renovation project has been plagued by delays and disagreements with the contractor and the state division of highways. The DOH says the contractor’s work was "unacceptable" and cancelled its contract with the Cleveland Ohio area based Velotta company." The contractor had problems getting tiles to stick to the bonding on the cement walls. Workers also discovered an abandoned coalmine over the tunnel, which was adding to water and moisture problems. Construction has been at a standstill since last November. But the Velotta Company started construction this week. That means the eastbound tube of the Wheeling tunnel will be closed once again to finish tile work and other renovations.

Travelers will be detoured through downtown Wheeling or Interstate 470. The work is expected to be complete in November, in time for the Festival of Lights holiday season. The Department of Transportation’s Communications Director Brent Walker says there will be a period of time during the project when both tunnels will be closed.

"There is some electrical work that will require us to close the Westbound tube while doing this work but it will be closed in the early morning late evening hours kind of the off peak hours and that will probably last a couple of months", Walker said.

Construction on the Westbound lane is expected to start sometime after the first of the year.