AASHTO Journal, 18 September 2015
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne, along with U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Victor Mendez, opened a new roadway bridge near Arlington National Cemetery that incorporates alternative travel modes with improved roadway use and features that highlight the local community’s heritage.
The $59.5 million project replaced a structurally deficient, weight-limited structure built near the Pentagon in 1942 with one that can carry heavier trucks and offers drivers two lanes in each direction with wider shoulders.
It was also built to leave plenty of room to accommodate bicycle and pedestrian traffic on the road it straddles, Columbia Pike – a heavily traveled route outside the nation’s capital – and allow for a future widening of that road. The new bridge also has more vertical clearance for trucks and buses on Columbia Pike.
The Federal Highway Administration said the Virginia Department of Transportation received $40.3 million in federal aid toward the total project cost.
“The previous single-span bridge was built in the 1940s by the War Department,” VDOT said, “as part of the Pentagon Roadway Network. It was a thick, solid structure that suffered from deteriorating concrete, corrosion and heavy chloride contamination.
“It had also withstood many years of increasing traffic loads” until the previous Washington Boulevard bridge was carrying 80,000 vehicles a day, VDOT added.
The new structure was dedicated on Sept. 10 as the Freedmans Village Bridge.
Layne at bridge dedication.Arlington County explained that it was named “for the settlement community of former slaves that existed from 1863 to 1900 on land that is now part of Arlington National Cemetery.”
Some descendants of that community joined in the dedication, and the new bridge has plaques that incorporate images of its namesake.
“The new bridge is wider, longer and a great deal more attractive than the previous structure,” VDOT said. “A light well separates westbound and eastbound lanes, and an acceleration/deceleration lane was added westbound between ramps.” The project also reconfigured several ramps to improve access, traffic flow and capacity.
“The new Freedmans Village Bridge is a great example of Virginia’s commitment to replacing aging and deteriorating infrastructure,” Layne said. “Through the efforts of our project team, federal, local and contractor partners, and the local community, the new bridge and interchange accomplish our operational and safety goals, enhance travel for vehicles, buses, bicyclists and pedestrians, and preserve access to the local neighborhoods.”
USDOT’s Mendez said the bridge “does two essential things – it replaces aging infrastructure and makes necessary improvements to accommodate traffic for future generations in Northern Virginia. We need more projects like this one, all around the country, which can only happen with a long-term transportation bill” from Congress.
