LoadPath PDH — PE/NICET supplemental PDH (not FHWA/NBIS refresher training).

Home › 1-PDH Bridge Catalog › BR-X11

State-SpecificOnline self-study

West Virginia Bridge Program: WVDOH Load Rating, Design and Repair

1 PDH · about 60 minutes · Course no. BR-X11 · Instructor: Michael Craig, PE

About the instructor

Michael Craig, PE is Senior Vice President and Southeast Director at Strinteg Corporation, leading bridge inspection and structural engineering across eight states and Puerto Rico. In 27+ years he has inspected over 4,000 structures and completed 3,000+ load ratings and 160+ load tests. He has managed repair and preservation design for complex bridges, including cable-stayed bridges. He holds PE licenses in twelve states, DC and Puerto Rico, SPRAT Level 1, and FAA Part 107 credentials.

West Virginia's rugged terrain gives it a large inventory of steel bridges, truss bridges and long-span structures, including the New River Gorge Bridge. WVDOH's 2023 Bridge Load Rating Manual sets out a detailed list of West Virginia legal loads, ties rating timing to the inventory inspection, and requires posting based on strength rather than service limit states. This one-hour course covers those rules, the New River Gorge preservation work presented to the Southeast Bridge Preservation Partnership in Charleston in 2025, and WVDOH's Structure Directives for design and repair.

⬇ Download study guide (PDF)

Learning objectives

  • Apply the 2022 NBIS baseline to West Virginia practice
  • Use the state DOT's intervals, critical finding and rating rules
  • Coordinate inspection, load rating and posting
  • Apply the state DOT's bridge design and repair standards

Outline

  1. Why a West Virginia-specific course
  2. The federal baseline you are measured against
  3. Who may inspect and rate in West Virginia
  4. West Virginia at a glance: the program and its documents
  5. Inspection types you will see in the bridge file
  6. Inspection intervals in West Virginia
  7. Critical findings and urgent deficiencies in West Virginia
  8. Load rating in West Virginia
  9. Posting, closure and signs in West Virginia
  10. New River Gorge Bridge preservation (SEBPP 2025)
  11. Rating older trusses and two-girder bridges
  12. Load rating refresher: methods, vehicles and rating factors
  13. Quality control, quality assurance and the bridge file
  14. Locally owned bridges
  15. Writing an inspection report a load rater can use
  16. Southeast hazards: flood, hurricane, salt and trucks
  17. Preservation lessons from the Southeast Bridge Preservation Partnership
  18. SNBI coding: what changes on the inspection form
  19. Permit loads and overweight vehicles
  20. Closing and reopening a bridge
  21. Ten common mistakes, and how to avoid them
  22. A team leader's field checklist
  23. Questions to ask before your first project in West Virginia
  24. Bridge design in West Virginia: WVDOH standards
  25. Bridge repair in West Virginia
  26. Designing a repair in West Virginia: the structural engineer's workflow
  27. Scenario: one bridge, start to finish, in West Virginia
  28. Verify before you rely on it
  29. Open the course (34 screens, 2 knowledge checks)
  30. Final quiz — 10 questions, 70% to pass

References

  1. 23 CFR Part 650, Subpart C — National Bridge Inspection Standards (final rule published May 6, 2022)
  2. FHWA, Specifications for the National Bridge Inventory (SNBI), FHWA-HIF-22-017, March 2022
  3. AASHTO, The Manual for Bridge Evaluation, 3rd Edition, 2018 (with interim revisions)
  4. WVDOH, Bridge Load Rating Manual, 2023
  5. WVDOH Structure Directives Master Manual (2022, current version)
  6. WVDOH Standards Committee Meeting minutes, July 6, 2022
  7. Egli, B. (TDOT), Preserving Tennessee's Bridge Decks and Joints, Southeast Bridge Preservation Partnership meeting, Atlanta, GA, April 2012
  8. Sloan, J., PE (NCDOT), Pee Dee River arch bridge feasibility study, Southeast Bridge Preservation Partnership meeting, April 2017
  9. Burgess & Niple, New River Gorge Bridge preservation, Southeast Bridge Preservation Partnership meeting, Charleston, WV, April 28-30, 2025
  10. eCFR, 23 CFR 650.311 and 650.313 (current text reviewed October 25, 2026)