THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190463
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: YORKTOWN LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
A project to widen the Coleman Bridge between York and Gloucester counties is about half-finished, and the work is on schedule for completion in August 1996, says the state Department of Transportation.
``You wonder how could that be,'' said Jim Cleveland, construction engineer for the department's Suffolk district.
Little of the work is evident to drivers crossing the existing two-lane bridge, he noted, because a major part of the $96 million project - 2,200 feet of steel gridwork - is being built miles away at Norfolk International Terminals.
The bridge, increasingly congested by commuters, is being widened to four lanes with two emergency lanes. One of four steel spans that will carry the new lanes over the York River has been finished, said Bill Dumas of Tidewater Construction Corp., the project's general contractor.
Workers are building forms for the reinforced concrete road surface for the span, which will join the road on the Gloucester Point side, Dumas said. Work is under way on the span that will join the road on the Yorktown side.
The two swing spans that will form the middle of the bridge also will be built at the terminals. When completed, the spans will be floated up the Chesapeake Bay and into the river. The trip will take about 18 hours, said Cleveland.
About a year from now the bridge will be closed to traffic for about 12 days while the new spans are floated in and the current spans are floated out.
Meanwhile, other work around the bridge itself is moving along, said Bob Spieldenner, a transportation department spokesman.
At Gloucester Point, land piers that support the bridge have been widened and reinforced. Concrete girders are being placed atop the piers, parallel to the current bridge, to support the road surface.
At Yorktown, a concrete median barrier is being erected, and a retaining wall is more than one-third complete.
Spieldenner said a toll administration building that will be constructed at Gloucester Point as well as the retaining wall and sound wall in Yorktown will be faced with brick, in keeping with the style of the area's Colonial buildings. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Steel spans that will carry the new road over the York River are
being built at Norfolk International Terminals. About a year from
now, the steel spans now in place will be floated away and the new
ones will be floated in.
KEYWORDS: COLEMAN BRIDGE REPLACEMENT by CNB