THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996               TAG: 9604100104
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN              PAGE: 04   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: SUFFOLK                            LENGTH: Medium:   55 lines

BROAD ST. BRIDGE CLOSED AND READY TO BE REPLACED OLD WOODEN SPAN WILL REOPEN AS A MODERN, $2.6 MILLION STRUCTURE IN ABOUT ONE YEAR

The humpback Broad Street Bridge - built more than 80 years ago as a railroad overpass for horse-drawn carriages - will be replaced with a modern, concrete and steel span.

The new bridge will be able to handle heavy vehicles such as school buses and fire trucks that previously had to bypass the area, said Thomas G. Hines, public works director.

The 450-foot long wooden bridge was limited to vehicles weighing three tons or less. Trucks were prohibited.

The city closed the narrow, aging bridge over the CSX Railroad Monday at 4 p.m.

For nearly a year, traffic will be detoured while the new, $2.6 million span is being built. The work, which will be done by W.C. English Inc. of Lynchburg, is expected to take 225 construction days.

The city is responsible for $57,002 - or two percent of the contract. The state is paying eight percent, and the rest will be funded by the Federal Highway Administration.

Traffic will be diverted to the intersection of West Washington Street and Constance Road until the construction is completed.

According to city traffic statistics, the bridge carried 3,300 vehicles a day, Hines said. About a fourth of those were heading toward or coming from the Riverview neighborhood north of Constance Road. The rest turned onto or off of Constance.

Many residents of Lakeside and other neighborhoods south of the bridge used the route to avoid the congested downtown area, Hines said.

The vehicle count is expected to jump dramatically with the completion of the new bridge, he said.

Instead of replacing the structure with an at-grade crossing, the city decided to rebuild the bridge to ensure that rescue vehicles would be able to cross the railroad tracks at all times.

The bridge, which has an 18-foot-wide roadway and sidewalks on each side, will be replaced with the same size foundation to avoid demolishing adjacent houses, Hines said.

The original bridge was shown on a railroad plat dated June 30, 1916 as a crossing over two sets of tracks - the Seaboard Coastline and the Virginia Railroad. That span was later reinforced with iron. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER

The old wooden Broad Street Bridge between Constance Road and West

Washington Street will be replaced with a concrete one.

by CNB