131-Year-Old Bridge Getting Face Lift, Adjacent Span

>>Aden Road Truss Bridge 

By URIAH KISER

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va.  — A 131-year-old bridge is about to get a face lift and a new companion.

Big plans are in store for the single-lane Aden Road truss bridge that carries cars over the Norfolk Southern Railroad in Nokesville. Soon, a new bridge span will be built next to the old one and, for the first time, two lanes of traffic will be able to cross over the railroad tracks at once and connect with Va. 28 to head to north Manassas or south to Fauquier County.

The project is expected to cost $4.6 million, and building a new bridge next to the old one is one of 10 options the Virginia Department of Transportation considered when coming up with a new traffic plan for the area.

After the new bridge span is built, traffic on to Aden Road coming from Va. 28 will cross the old 1882 truss bridge, while traffic on Aden Road headed to Va. 28 will use the new span.

The wrought-iron truss bridge is structurally deficient and inefficient, as only one car can cross the bridge at a time. And because the steel is ridden with corrosion, it’ll have to rehabilitated with new steel shapes, cables, and bolts so it can accommodate legal heavy truck loads. VDOT said they cannot use wrought-iron because it simply isn’t widely available anymore, and is now mostly used in ornamental displays.

The bridge, which was placed on the National Historic Register in 1977, has a wooden deck that was the center of concern when the bridge was closed for a little over a month in 2007. Timber became loose, and the owner of the bridge – Norfolk Southern Railroad –replaced the wood which allowed vehicles to cross it once more.

The wooden bridge deck was also repaired again in 2011, the second repair since the 2007 closing, according to VDOT documents. VDOT is charged with monitoring and inspecting the bridge.

Norfolk Southern would like to donate the bridge to another locality as it limits the height of trains that can pass underneath, as well as prohibits the addition of new track underneath in railroad right of way, VDOT documents state.

There was talk of moving the bridge to another location nearby Nokesville Community Park, but it appears that plan is no longer in the cards.

It wouldn’t be the first time the bridge has been moved, either. It was moved to its current location sometime between 1904 and 1928, according to VDOT.

And the bridge is dangerous: 19 crashes have been reported at the bridge since 2000, with eight injuries and no fatalities. Many of the crashes involved either head on or rear end collisions.

A public hearing on the new bridge is scheduled this spring, said VDOT Transportation and Land Use Director Maria Sinner. Construction of the new bridge and rehab of the old truss crossing should begin in early 2014 with a completion slated for later that summer.