Contracts for the new U.S. Grant Bridge were given in the spring of 2001. Construction was expected to be complete in June 2004, but work fell behind schedule due to inclement weather, unusual flooding of the Ohio River, and the partial sinking of a floating construction barge which carried one of the cranes used to work on the center span of the bridge. The date of completion was moved to October 16, 2006. In addition, many downtown business owners were upset over the delays and often criticized the construction company, , for delays on days when it was sunny and the river levels were average. The bridge was critically underdesigned and not constructible until C.J. Mahan stopped construction and awaited a near complete redesign by the design consultant. Another complaint was that this is the first major bridge project the construction company that was awarded the construction contract has worked on. However, C.J. Mahan has constructed other large bridges in Ohio and West Virginia. Local business owners demanded that ODOT pay local businesses $8 million in lost profit.
Original U.S. Grant Bridge
The original U.S. Grant Bridge was a suspension bridge. The bridge opened to traffic as a toll bridge in 1927. It wasn't until 1974 when the Ohio Department of Transportation bought the bridge from the Ohio Bridge Commission and removed the tolls. After an inspection found serious deterioration of its suspension cables, the U.S. Grant Bridge closed for repairs over an 18-month period from 1978 to 1979. In order to improve capacity and to add redundancy for vehicular traffic to cross the Ohio River at Portsmouth, a new bridge was proposed downstream from the U.S. Grant Bridge. The proposed bridge would be named the Carl Perkins Bridge and would open to traffic in 1988. In addition, the Jesse Stuart Memorial Bridge, an additional bridge over the Greenup Lock and Dam upstream from the U.S. Grant Bridge, would open to traffic in 1984. In 1992, ODOT initiated a long-range study to determine whether to continue to rehabilitate the existing bridge or construct a new span. ODOT had spent $9 million from 1977 to 1996 by the time the study was completed to rehabilitate portions of the bridge. According to the study, rehabilitating the span would add only 20 useful years to the suspension bridge before rehabilitation would need to occur again and would cost nearly $30 million. It was found not cost-efficient to continuously rehabilitate the suspension bridge when a new structure would be cheaper in the long-run. The bridge continued to age and once again closed from repairs in 1994. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 2001 as General U.S. Grant Bridge. It was deemed "significant as it represents the first private toll bridge across the Ohio River between Wheeling, West Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio, and as such provided a strategic vehicular transportation link between southern Ohio and northeastern Kentucky. The U.S. Grant Bridge was also Ohio's first north-south automobile link crossing the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Ironton and today stands as an important engineering achievement associated with the development of early motoring and interstate commerce." It was also deemed notable for "the role the General U. S. Grant Bridge design occupies in the career of David B. Steinman. Steinman, a principal in the engineering consulting firm of Robinson and Steinman, ranked among the nation's prominent early 20th century suspension bridge design firms. Steinman achieved national renown as a bridge designer and author during his long career from 1914 until his death in 1960. His General U. S. Grant Bridge was the second American suspension bridge built with a continuous stiffening truss and the first American suspension bridge with towers of the rocker type. The sand-filled anchorages were equally innovative." On July 3, 2001, the original suspension bridge was permanently closed to traffic and the entire structure was torn down within a few months.
