The Market Street Bridge in Steubenville is back open to the public Thursday after a three-day project to install weight sensors for vehicles. Contractors said they hope it will make people more aware of the five-ton limit.

West Virginia Department of Transportation Division of Highways officials said traffic enforcement officers will to pull over anyone who exceeds the weight limit with the help of weight sensors in the ground. Contractor Ron White, of ECM Inc., explained the process.

"When they cross over the sensors, we can get the information off those vehicles to determine what their weights are and whether or not they may violate a weight limit," said White.

WVDOT is overseeing the project with hopes to curb the wear and tear on the aging suspension bridge.

"From my understanding (of) the bridge, there was money allocated for the lighting and the refurbishing of the bridge. With the strict weight limit theyhave on it, they wanted some kind of system in place to be able to monitor the weight of the vehicles," said Ray Dooley, the WVDOH field supervisor.

Contractors showed traffic enforcement officers how they can read the data from the sensors.

"It's going to be the pickup trucks that they're primarily looking at that. (They) might have a big tool box on the back, and they may not even know they're overweight," said White. "So it's going to help raise the awareness when they get pulled over."

White said speed sensors, in addition to the weight sensors, will better calculate the weight of vehicles. They said all of this work should help the bridge last another 10 years.