Ohio River reopens in area of Fort Steuben Bridge implosion

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio/ WEIRTON, W.Va. --

While cleanup continues on the Ohio River after Tuesday's implosion of the Fort Steuben Bridge, the waterway is back open.

Crews had until 7:30 a.m. Wednesday to get the waterway back open to river traffic.

Clint Filges, project manager for Joseph B. Fay Co., said, "Yesterday, right after the shot, we pushed down with the river fleet and started moving everything from the main channel."

-- Fort Steuben Bridge Implosion Videos

-- Photo Timeline Leading Up To The Bridge's Implosion

-- Historical Photos Of The Fort Steuben Bridge

Filges said crews worked until 9 p.m. Tuesday to get everything out of the main channel. He and his crew headed back to work early Wednesday.

"Basically we designed the pieces that fell into the water to be a certain size and length and we just have to make sure that those pieces were removed," Filges said.

The U.S. Coast Guard gave contractors 24 hours to get the waterway back open to boat traffic, but crews' work isn't finished quite yet.

"On the Ohio landside, we're working over there. (We) got the railroad opened back up (and the) marina access road opened back up last night as well," he said. "We still have cleanup, downsizing, processing the steel out of it and shipping it over to the scrap yard."

Contractors said they have until the end of the week to wrap the job up. They said they haven't had any problems during the cleanup process and they will take bridge pieces to be recycled in Weirton.