The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) announced that it is less than a year away from completing repairs on a series of 11 bridges along I-95 through Henrico County. Assuming the last bridge is finished in 2014 as scheduled, the department will have completed the entire project in just four years.
Work began in 2010 on the ambitious project, which grouped all 11 spans under one contract awarded to Atlanta-based Archer Western Construction LLC. VDOT’s reasons for structuring the contract in such a way were three-fold:
1) By doing all 11 bridges at once, they could avoid making repeat visit to the area over a long period of time;
2) They were able to give the whole project to a single contractor as opposed to finding a new one for each bridge; and
3) The contractor will be able to apply lessons learned on each individual bridge to future spans, accelerating the learning curve.
The agency says that all of the bridges are still safe, but that the repairs are needed in order for them to remain safe. A total of $106.6 million has been budgeted for the project—80% from federal sources and 20% from state funding.
I-95 is a major north-south, six-lane corridor serving Richmond and the rest of Henrico County. Approximately 160,000 cars crossing the bridges in question each day.
