THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605050111
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: YORKTOWN LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Several hundred people lined the beach of this historic town Saturday to watch Tidewater Construction Corp. make history by taking away the first two pieces of the old George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge in preparation for replacing them with new, complete spans.
The project marks the first time a bridge has been completely prefabricated away from the body of water it will span, then set into place ready to carry traffic. Tidewater Construction, a Virginia Beach company, has 12 days to take the old bridge apart and set the six new sections into place over the York River between Yorktown and Gloucester Point.
Three pieces of the Yorktown side of the 44-year-old span, the largest double-swing bridge in the country, were scheduled to be taken away Saturday.
``You'd think it was July 4th ,'' said Deane Reis of Newport News.
Reis and his friend, Jean Cummings of Norfolk, said nostalgia drew them to watch as the half-mile long bridge was dismantled.
``We used to stay in Gloucester during the summer,'' said Cummings, a teacher at Northside Middle School in Norfolk. ``We used to cross over the bridge and it was the highlight of the trip.''
Reis and Cummings snapped pictures along with others gathered at the Watermen's Museum as two barges, filled with water and topped with steel supports, moved under the first span.
Sunny skies and warm 15- to 25-mph winds tempted boaters, who were kept 500 yards away by the Coast Guard.
About 11 a.m., crews began pumping water out of the barges, and the barges and supports slowly rose, lifting the section off its concrete supports. The process will be reversed to set the new sections in place.
``That's impressive,'' Reis said. ``They said they were going to start at 11 a.m. and they did,'' he said.
Leaving a giant hole in the bridge, tugs pushed the old section away from the span and down the river toward Norfolk. The section will be set into place atop concrete pilings at Norfolk International Terminals. Eventually, all six sections of the old bridge will be floated to NIT, placed atop concrete pilings and demolished.
The new bridge is scheduled to open at 6 a.m. May 16. If all goes well, all six of the new sections could be in place by May 11. The company's hour-by-hour plan calls for two more old sections on the Gloucester side of the bridge to be taken away May 8. The final section is scheduled to be removed May 9.
Meanwhile, motorists wishing to cross the river must make a 75-mile detour through West Point.
When the shutdown is complete, Tidewater Construction and the Virginia Department of Transportation plan to open two lanes of the bridge.
In August, the $103 million project will be complete and all four lanes opened. The bridge will be able to carry 30,000 cars a day; the old bridge was designed to carry 15,000 but was carrying 28,000 cars a day. by CNB