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West Point Bridges, Fredericksburg, VA -VDOT

VDOT's Fredericksburg District has closed the final chapter of the West Point Bridge Replacement Project. The completion of the second phase, the new Eltham Bridge crossing the Pamunkey River and Rte 33 widening through the Town of West Point, marks the closure on this mega project. The new bridges and roadway improvements have accomplished their purpose to ease the frequent bottlenecks associated with the heavy flow of daily vehicular traffic through the Town traveling from I-64 to Rte 17. The projected cost for both phases was $126+ million.

In late Spring 2004, McLean Contracting/Bryant Contracting, Joint Venture began the first phase with the construction of the new Lord Delaware Bridge crossing the Mattaponi River replacing the old 1,572 foot 2-lane swing span. The new 3,545 foot fixed bridge has four 12' lanes, 10' shoulders on each side, and provides for 55' clearance over the river channel. From numerous focal points, it offers spectacular views of the winding river and its shorelines. This phase also included a pedestrian ‘park-like' setting with bike trails, two overlooks, and replaced the box culvert at West Point Creek with a 5-lane single span bridge. The Lord Delaware Bridge project was awarded the Virginia Chapter - American Concrete Institute 2006 Award of Excellence for the Infrastructure Category, the 2006 VDOT/VTCA Virginia Construction Award through the use of a Context Sensitive Solution design process, and the AMT 2006 Mac Lindsay Construction Inspection and Construction Management Service Award.

January 2005, Tidewater Skanska (now Skanska USA Civil Southeast, Inc.) mobilized to the project site to mark the start of the second phase which included the construction of the new Eltham Bridge crossing the Pamunkey River replacing the existing 2,350 foot 2-lane bridge that included a Warren Through Truss Swing Span. As with it's sister bridge, the new 5,354 foot Eltham Bridge also has four 12' lanes, 10' shoulders on each side, and provides for 55' clearance over the river channel at Mean High Tide. In addition, this new structure includes a 248 foot Double Leaf Trunnion Bascule Span that is controlled from the state-of-the-art Operator's Tower designed for the project. This phase of the project also included the reconstruction and widening of Rte 33 through the Town of West Point from 3 lanes to 5 lanes, the installation of new brick paver sidewalks, new brick paver intersections, landscaping enhancements, roadway lighting and two new traffic signals.

Both projects were faced with numerous environmental challenges that had to be addressed including the time-of-year restrictions (TOY) for working in water, tidal influences, a soft sub-surface, and sensitive wetland areas along and around shorelines of both rivers. In addition, working with constant heavy logging truck traffic to the chip mill and the high volume of daily vehicular traffic traveling through the Town of West Point presented major maintenance of traffic issues and safety concerns.

The on site project management and inspection services was a combined effort between Wilbur Smith & Associates, A. Morton Thomas & Associates, and Belstar. At the height of construction, the inspection team consisted of 17 inspectors.

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