The American Legion Bridge in Stafford County -- a two-lane bridge that carries traffic over Interstate 95, just north of the Stafford Regional Airport -- is about to close for nine months.

The Stafford County Infrastructure Committee received an update from the Virginia Department of Transportation about the upcoming closure of the bridge and the detours that will be used during that period.

The bridge will be replaced to accommodate the construction of two reversible I-95 E-Pass Express Lanes, as part of a project to extend the lanes south from Garrisonville Road to Route 17 near Fredericksburg. The Truslow Road Bridge, about 10 miles south of the American Legion Bridge, was also replaced to accommodate the new lanes. It reopened in April, five months behind schedule.

The update, presented by VDOT Mega Projects Engineer Robert Ridgell, outlined how traffic will be diverted during the nine months that the American Legion Bridge will be under reconstruction.

The planned detour will use the Centreport Parkway interchange at milepost 136 to get around the bridge and get onto Ramoth Church Road. VDOT will also coordinate with school transportation officials in order to inform them about the detours as the closure date gets near.

VDOT is planning to use lessons learned from the Truslow Bridge experience and apply them to the American Legion Bridge project in order to avoid the same mistakes and getting behind schedule.

The Truslow project ran into several issues that caused delays leading to the additional five months before its reopening. Four of those months were spent on redesigns of the foundations and piling which would have affected the quality of the bridge. Those delays combined with the coronavirus pandemic interrupting the work of the design and bridge crews brought down the work rates that would have brought the bridge to completion on time, said Ridgell. 

Ridgell vowed to the committee that VDOT had created risk mitigation plans that were designed due to the Truslow Bridge issues, one such mitigation would be the imposition of lane rental charges that would be made to the construction crew if they fail to make the completion date.

The American Legion Bridge is scheduled to be closed by January 2022 for this reconstruction.