Virginia Wins National Honor for Bridge Work Teamwork

Bridge and Rail Improvements Achieved “Under Traffic”

Austin, TX/September14, 2005—The National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ) announced today that its 2005 State Award has been earned by the Virginia Department of Transportation, its Luray Residency, and general contractor Fairfield-Skanska, Inc. for the reconstruction of a bridge over Route 683 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, “a project whose outstanding work exemplifies the best in construction quality and customer-oriented quality practices.”

Announcing the award was Bob Templeton, executive director of NPHQ, a partnership among federal, state, and roadway industry leaders and officials whose shared advocacy of “customer-centered” practices has produced better, safer, more user-friendly roads and bridges that are completed faster, last longer, and minimize congestion and inconvenience.

Templeton noted that the work, designed to replace a deficient bridge structure on Route 340 over the Norfolk Southern Railway and Virginia Route 683, just north of Shenandoah in southern Page County, was designed entirely in-house by VDOT’s Staunton District staff, including Keith Weakley, P.E., bridge designer, and Charles Gardner and Les Kodger, who furnished the road design.

They faced multiple challenges, including adjacent properties that varied from residential, to commercial, to agricultural uses, 6,500 vehicles a day on the road, and twelve trains rumbling daily over the tracks. So the idea of completing the project under traffic, with no disruptions to the railroad or access to adjacent homes, businesses, and farms, seemed problematical.

Despite the steep challenges, the Virginia team worked smoothly to construct a new two-lane bridge, of a single-span steel girder design, and—at 50.5 meters (the project was designed entirely in metric) one of the longest in Virginia—on a new alignment just west of the existing structure.

Enlisting public support as part of an overall customer-focused concept, the team smoothly accomplished the demolition of the old structure and the building of the new, plus new grading, storm sewers, curbs and gutter replacements, asphalt paving, and adjustments of municipal water facilities. They even managed to work through a huge wedge of solid limestone rock. In the end, the project was completed with no accidents or disruptions, two days early.

“The successful completion and top quality of this new bridge is something we see as a direct result of the good communications, teamwork, and partnership at every step by the Virginia project management team,” said Templeton.

NPHQ is composed of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Texas Transportation Institute, the Foundation for Pavement Preservation, the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies, the American Highway Users Alliance, The Associated General Contractors of America, the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Kiewit Corporation, and the URS Corporation.

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