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The repairs were started in the spring of 2009.

Annette Adams is the structural bridge engineer in the Saluda office of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) directing the project. She said the steel is replacing four struts, 11 cross braces and one wind brace that have “deteriorated from exposure to salt air.”

All the sections are below the deck level and there is no danger to the public. Additional braces are installed before any section is removed.

“That is why it is expensive and time consuming,” said Adams. “You can’t just unbolt a brace and put a new one in. Extra supports are installed before a brace is taken out.”

The steel repair phase accounts for $2.57 million of the whole repair contract. Corman Construction from Colonial Heights is the contractor for this phase.

The majority of the repair cost is for painting the entire bridge, all 1,193,626 square feet of it. Atsalis Bros. from Clinton, Mich., has the contract for the $22.3 million first phase of the painting project, which is under way concurrently with the steel replacement.

The company will use 15,000 gallons to paint all the bridge sections, except the channel span, and is due to be finished in late 2012. Atsalis Bros. superintendent David Schroeder said they are about a year ahead of schedule.

The $12 million painting of the channel span is scheduled to start as soon as the first phase is completed, but Adams said only about 10 percent of that money has been allocated so far. The contract has not been awarded yet.

The total cost for both painting phases is $34.3 million.

The painting of the bridge involves the removal of toxic lead paint used the last time the bridge was painted more than 30 years ago. Specially trained and equipped workers trap paint being removed, which is transferred to a hazardous waste facility for disposal.

“The containment is total,” said Adams. “No lead chips or dust are allowed into the air or waterway.”

Final phase

The last phase of the whole project is re-decking the roadway on the bridge. Adams said a new type of asphalt, which hasn’t been used in Virginia yet, will be installed. It has gotten good reviews in other states where it has been employed, she said.

A $400,000 contract will be advertised in early November for a company to lay the first test section, consisting of one span on the lower part of the bridge. Once the test is complete, the rest of the $6.7 million decking contract will be advertised and awarded, Adams said.

While under repair, one lane of the bridge has been closed as needed, but only between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. There have been no significant traffic delays reported.

VDOT project manager Rob Shackelford in the Fredericksburg office said that once all repair phases are completed by 2013 or 2014, the bridge will be considered viable for at least another 30 years, although that expectancy is subject to routine inspections. Schroeder said the service life of the painting job is 25 years.

Some local citizens have lobbied the transportation department and other state officials for the last several years to replace the aging bridge, which enjoyed its 50th anniversary in 2008. It is the same type as the bridge which collapsed in Minnesota in 2007.

Many people think the bridge is too old and too narrow and dangerous for motorists, especially in inclement weather conditions. There have been major changes in bridge design and safety in the last several decades.

But the estimated $350 million price tag for a new span has found few supporters in the middle of a deep recession. And the fact that most of the funds for the repairs to the old bridge had already been appropriated, effectively precluded any serious consideration to build a new bridge now.