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The railing on the Stafford County bridge, which spans railroad tracks, This Courthouse Road bridge in Stafford has been declared deficient. |
BY KELLY HANNON
A structurally deficient bridge that spans railroad tracks on Courthouse Road in Stafford County may be replaced using $5.4 million in federal stimulus money.
Next week, the Commonwealth Transportation Board will consider a recommendation to approve stimulus funding for the bridge east of the courthouse, said Cord Sterling, a Stafford supervisor and transportation board member.
"It is the only means by which people who live out there have of getting to, and from, their homes," Sterling wrote in an e-mail. "If it collapses, how will they do so? The problems, challenges, and risks of inaction are just too great to allow it to be ignored any longer and so we at the state level are moving it forward."
News of a replacement would cap more than a decade of efforts to repair or replace the bridge, which provides the only road to homes on the other side, a marina, and a campground.
Aquia Bay Marina on Aquia Creek is east of the bridge. Manager George Paxson said boats too big to be towed across the 1917 bridge have only one way to reach the marina--by water.
Paxson was pleased to hear that stimulus money may pay to replace the bridge, which spans railroad tracks owned by CSX Corp.
Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express and freight trains travel underneath. "I worry that should we ever have a major problem with the bridge, it would stop all the rail traffic on the eastern seaboard between Miami, Fla., and Boston, Mass.," Paxson said.
Delivery trucks and heavy vehicles are sometimes unable to cross the Courthouse Road bridge, which has a 15-ton weight limit.
Stafford Supervisor Paul Milde said replacing the bridge is a critical transportation need. The bridge is in his Aquia District.
"I made it such an issue in my campaign. You can see through the bridge. It's not a safe situation," he said.
The bridge is east of Hamn Lane, and it is the only crossing for residents living in the Aquia Heights, Caldwell Estates, Paynes Landing and Red Oak subdivisions.
It has been declared structurally deficient. According to the Federal Highway Administration, that label means a bridge must be monitored, inspected or maintained.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer has said the replacement of structurally deficient bridges would be a spending priority for the state's $694 million in highway stimulus funds.
Earlier transportation board action on stimulus funds has approved $13 million for paving Interstate 95 and $25.2 million for widening State Route 3 in Spotsylvania County.
A new Courthouse Road bridge would have been funded as part of the county transportation bond package passed by Stafford voters in a referendum last November.
The estimated cost of the bridge's replacement last fall was $7.7 million. The county had hoped to raise $1.6 million in bond funding, combined with just over $6 million in funds from the state for the bridge.
But in February, the Commonwealth Transportation Board passed a revised six-year transportation budget that spread the $6 million for the bridge replacement out over a number of years until 2014. The budget lists a construction date of fiscal 2013.
Sterling said the stimulus funding, if approved by the transportation board, means the project could begin sooner.
However, Milde said he was told last year the $6 million was in place, and that the project would be moving forward in 2010. "The money was already programmed," Milde said. "They're already moving utilities out on the bridge."
Sterling felt confident the other 16 board members, appointed by the governor, will support the project.
"It's just too critical," Sterling said.
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com
