Traffic

Chatham Bridge, a key link to Fredericksburg, expected to reopen by October

By Rick Horner
VDOT crews walk across a the deck atop the Chatham Bridge over the Rappahannock River, linking Fredericksburg with Stafford County. [Photo: Rick Horner]

The Chatham Bridge will reopen a key entrance to Fredericksburg later this year, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced Monday.

One year ago, the Virginia Department of Transportation closed the 80-year-old bridge to demolish it, to make a new and improved structure. The new bridge carries drivers over the Rappahannock River, linking the city with Stafford County.

Potomac Local News on Monday toured the new bridge, which is in the later stages of construction. 

The bridge has been one of the major throughways into downtown Fredericksburg from Stafford County from Route 3 since it first opened in 1941 and carried around 16,000 vehicles a day. Several improvements are underway to the bridge, which includes expanding it from a two-lane into a four-lane bridge and sturdier construction that will be able to hold larger trucks. Because of this, there will be no vehicle weight posting on the bridge.

Other additions made to the bridge will be new pedestrian and bicycle paths separated from vehicle traffic by installed barriers. The paths will also link to Stafford County's Belmont-Ferry Farm Trail and other sidewalks in downtown Fredericksburg.

While the bridge will be open for traffic by October, completion of work on the bridge will be done by April 2022. According to VDOT Engineer Robert Ridgell, final adjustments to the bridge and clean-up, such as removal of the stone embankments placed in the river alongside the bridge, allow heavy machinery to perform its construction tasks.

The total cost of the bridge has been estimated at $23.4 million and is being funded through state transportation funds from the State of Good Repair program. The building contract for the bridge was awarded to Pittsburgh-based Joseph B. Fay; the company included in their bid a guarantee to have the bridge ready for traffic in 16 months instead of the 38 months that the project was expected to be done in.

In the days leading up to its closure, there was much concern about how that lack of the bridge would affect businesses in the downtown area. That effect, however, was eclipsed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and made it difficult to say which had more of an impact on local businesses.





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Town hall to focus on future of OmniRide

By Uriah Kiser
Samuel Johnson, of My City cleaning services, polishes one of six new OmniRide commuter buses.

Commuters will get an earful on the future of OmniRide, the transportation agency that provides bus service in Prince William and Stafford counties and the cities of Manassas Park.

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Traffic shift at Route 1 at Potomac Creek in Stafford County

By Press Release
[Photo: VDOT Fredericksburg District]

Route 1 southbound traffic at Potomac Creek in Stafford County will be shifted onto a new section of road and bridge on Thursday, June 24.

Both southbound travel lanes will remain open. But as construction on the Potomac Creek bridge replacement project enters the next phase, southbound traffic will be shifted slightly left to cross Potomac Creek using what will become the future northbound lanes on the new bridge. This shift allows crews to build the southbound lanes of the new bridge.

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DDI to wider roads: Major transportation upgrades underway outside Manassas

By Uriah Kiser

The effort to build the second diverging diamond interchange in Prince William County is well underway.

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Long-term Route 3 lane closure in Falmouth to begin Friday

By Uriah Kiser

Drivers who travel on Route 3 near Fredericksburg will have to contend with a long-term lane closure.

The right lane of the highway, on the westbound side of the road, on the bridge over the CSX Railroad will close for the next five months. The affected portion of highway lies between Cool Spring and Chatham Heights roads in Stafford County.

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Another Stafford bridge to be rebuilt; VDOT vows to complete this one on time

By Rick Horner
Truslow Road Bridge over I-95 [Photo: VDOT ]

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.

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Expect delays near Stafford Hosptial for ongoing I-95 Express Lanes work

By Press Release

One westbound lane on Hospital Center Boulevard will close near Route 1 in Stafford County for 24 hours a day next week for pavement repairs as part of the 95 Express Lanes Fredericksburg Extension project.

Crews are working near the Route 1 and Hospital Center Boulevard intersection to install new utility lines and build the sign foundations for the future access point to the express lanes at exit 140 (Courthouse Road).

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Drivers be warned — Manassas to activate red light camera

By Uriah Kiser
City police car design from 2011

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I-95 Rappahannock River bridge construction set to wrap earlier than scheduled

By Rick Horner
Rappahannock River bridge carries I-95 over the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg [VDOT]

In encouraging traffic news, the Stafford County Infrastructure Committee received news from the Virginia Department of Transportation that two major road projects are on track for completion -- one set to be done on time and another ahead of schedule.

One project, the Interstate 95 Southbound Rappahannock River Crossing project is expected to be completed ahead of schedule, according to Virginia Department of Transportation Mega Projects Engineer Robert Ridgell. The project involved constructing three new lanes from Exit 133, at Route 17 to milepost 130, at Route 3, separating local and long-distance traffic.

  • The project also reconstructed three of the four bridges that run over Route 17.

The project which began in August 2018 was originally scheduled to be completed in May 2022 but is now on track for an early completion for December 2021. VDOT plans to make traffic switches to the new lanes in September with the new Route 17 bridges, plans are also being outlined for major traffic shifting upon the projected completion of the bridge in December.

Ridgell also says the committee that an I-95 Northbound Rappahannock River Crossing Project, on the opposite side of the highway from the southbound portion of the project, is on schedule to meet its May 2024 completion deadline. Construction on the project began in October 2020 which involved constructing three new lanes from Fall Hill Avenue, just south of the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg to Exit 133 at Route 17 in Stafford County, which will also separate local and long-distance traffic.

A new fourth lane will also be constructed from Route 17 to Centreport Parkway, near the Stafford Regional Airport. A pedestrian crossing being constructed under I-95 at Route 17.

The "Fred-Express" ramp, part of the extension of the I-95 E-ZPass toll lanes, is on track for its scheduled completion in October, said Ridgell. 

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