Fredericksburg, Va., train station repairs coming
Written by jrood
Repairs to the Fredericksburg, Va., train station could be under way this summer, The Free Lance-Star reports. Virginia Railway Express received permission from its Operations Board to issue an invitation for construction bids to repair the drainage system in the station's railroad bridge.
A completed design is
ready, and has been approved by the bridge’s owner, CSX Corp. of Jacksonville. Once
bids are received, a contract is likely to be awarded in early June. Construction
will take eight months.
The project originated in
2005, when then-1st District Rep. Jo Ann Davis secured a $2.6-million earmark
in a federal transportation bill for station repairs. Davis died from breast
cancer in 2007.
The money was authorized
in the bill years ago, but was appropriated over fiscal years 2007 to 2011,
said Mark Roeber, VRE’s manager of government relations and public affairs. That
time frame is what led to the delay between the announcement of the earmark and
the construction work, Roeber said.
In the interim, with the
available funds, VRE hired an engineering firm in 2007 for $50,000 to develop a
list of needed repairs at the station. The firm determined the elevated tracks
were safe to carry trains, but they still needed an overhaul. In 2008, the VRE
Operations Board approved a contract with STV/RWA Rail Design for $134,800.
Once the construction
work is done, the most noticeable improvement will be the bridge’s facade. The
chipped concrete surface will be repaired, and cars and pedestrians passing
underneath will no longer be in danger of having pieces of the bridge fall on
them.
The railroad bridge is
built like a viaduct, with ballast and train tracks laid into it. There is no
single central draining point for water. Over the years, the drainage system
has become clogged. Trapped water freezes and thaws, damaging the concrete in
the process, and causing the falling debris.
The repair work is
limited to two streets, however, Caroline and Princess Anne. The bridge crosses
four streets in Fredericksburg: Caroline and Princess Anne and Sophia and
Charles.
The federal earmark is not
enough money to fund bridge repairs across all four streets. So, with the
funding it had, VRE decided to repair the bridge sections closest to the train
station, Roeber said.
