VRE railroad bridge repairs will start next month

Work to repair the concrete exterior of the railroad bridge in downtown Fredericksburg, Va., will begin next month, local media report. The Virginia Railway Express Operations Board picked the lowest bidder among three competing construction firms to perform the work.

Trinity Construction
Group Inc. of Culpeper, Va., won the bid for $1.7-million, with a 15 percent
contingency up to $1.9 million. The highest bid was $2.4 million.

Another $200,000 will be
spent to pay the company that owns the railroad tracks and bridge, CSX Transportation.
CSXT requires its staff to perform some elements of the repair work, such as
any work on the tracks.

The repair project will
fix the most glaring problem with the railroad bridge’s exterior, which is
cracked, unsightly and occasionally sends bits or chunks of debris to the
streets and sidewalks below. The railroad bridge itself is structurally sound,
and is safe to carry trains, an assessment has concluded. But poor water
drainage is causing the surface damage. There is only one drainage point for water
on the bridge, and it frequently becomes clogged. The trapped water freezes and
thaws depending on weather conditions, damaging the bridge facade.

After construction work begins
in July, it will continue through fall 2011.

VRE did not have any
information yet about disruption to vehicle and foot traffic underneath the
bridge, which spans Sophia, Caroline, Princess Anne and Charles streets.

Workers will try to
minimize any impact to the community, and the need for any lane closures, said
Mark Roeber, VRE’s manager of public affairs and government relations. As work
advances, more specific information will be available on any closures, Roeber
said.

Virginia 1st District
Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis secured a $2.6-million federal earmark for train
bridge repairs in Fredericksburg before she died in 2007. The money was
allocated in phases over four years.

Also, the Operations Board
recommended spending $13.2 million on four train locomotives from MotivePower
Inc. of Boise, Idaho. If approved by the two transportation commission
overseeing VRE, the railway will have ordered 19 of the needed 20 locomotives. VRE
had previously ordered 15 locomotives from MotivePower.