BLUEFIELD, WV (WVNS) — Governor Justice announced an opening date for the Grant Street Bridge.

A celebration for the opening of the bridge will be held at the bridge on Monday, December 18, 2023 at 1:00 pm.

The bridge was originally built in 1941 and allowed access between downtown Bluefield and Princeton Avenue to the town’s North End and East Side. The bridge has been closed since June 2019, which left travelers with a long detour to get to those parts of town.

In October 2020, $10.5 million in local, state, and federal funding was announced by Governor Jim Justice to replace the decaying bridge. Highway officials helped work out an agreement between the City of Bluefield and Norfolk Southern Corporation, who co-owned the old bridge.

The agreement included Norfolk Southern agreeing to give ownership of the bridge to the City of Bluefield, as well as agreeing to give $500,000 to city officials as local match funding for construction. The project was managed by the West Virginia Division of Highways, with the Federal Highway Administration giving $8 million in funding, and they received $2 million in funding from state sources.

Brayman Construction Corporation received a contract to tear down the old bridge and build a new one in the spring of 2021 for $8,097,117.21. The new bridge will allow easier access all parts of town and to US 19. The new bridge was built in the same vicinity as the old bridge, and is 330 feet long.