Completed in 2003 by the Turman Construction Company of Barboursville, the $2.8 million West Buckeye Bridge is believed by WVU wood technology research personnel to be the world’s longest three-hinge timber arch structure.  In addition to its fiber-reinforced glue-laminated timber arch and use of HPS, the single-span 149-foot bridge carrying Monongalia County 39 over Dunkard Creek west of WV 7 has a deck of fiber-reinforced polymer.  Designed in cooperation with WVU, with innovative funding from the Federal Highway Administration under a special program to encourage new technology, the project includes a handicap-accessible parking lot nearby from which the unique structure can be viewed.

         Providing two 11-foot lanes with four-foot shoulders and a five-foot upstream sidewalk, the single-span structure has a deck developed by a Kansas City manufacturer and an arch developed by an Oregon manufacturer.  It provides a 16-foot vertical clearance above the deck and has 15 cables on each side and three steel hinges - two at the points where the floor beams are attached and one at the apex because of the arch’s length.