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CSX bridge over Courthouse Road in Stafford may be replaced with stimulus money Date published: 5/17/2009
BY KELLY HANNON A structurally deficient bridge that spans railroad tracks on Courthouse Road in Stafford County may be replaced using $5.4 million in federal stimulus money. Next week, the Commonwealth Transportation Board will consider a recommendation to approve stimulus funding for the bridge east of the courthouse, said Cord Sterling, a Stafford supervisor and transportation board member. "It is the only means by which people who live out there have of getting to, and from, their homes," Sterling wrote in an e-mail. "If it collapses, how will they do so? The problems, challenges, and risks of inaction are just too great to allow it to be ignored any longer and so we at the state level are moving it forward." News of a replacement would cap more than a decade of efforts to repair or replace the bridge, which provides the only road to homes on the other side, a marina, and a campground. Aquia Bay Marina on Aquia Creek is east of the bridge. Manager George Paxson said boats too big to be towed across the 1917 bridge have only one way to reach the marina--by water. Paxson was pleased to hear that stimulus money may pay to replace the bridge, which spans railroad tracks owned by CSX Corp. Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express and freight trains travel underneath. "I worry that should we ever have a major problem with the bridge, it would stop all the rail traffic on the eastern seaboard between Miami, Fla., and Boston, Mass.," Paxson said. Delivery trucks and heavy vehicles are sometimes unable to cross the Courthouse Road bridge, which has a 15-ton weight limit. Stafford Supervisor Paul Milde said replacing the bridge is a critical transportation need. The bridge is in his Aquia District. "I made it such an issue in my campaign. You can see through the bridge. It's not a safe situation," he said. The bridge is east of Hamn Lane, and it is the only crossing for residents living in the Aquia Heights, Caldwell Estates, Paynes Landing and Red Oak subdivisions. It has been declared structurally deficient. According to the Federal Highway Administration, that label means a bridge must be monitored, inspected or maintained.
Has it occurred to anyone that Rep. Wittman and his part mind set put a thumbs DOWN on the stimulus package. Now that the turn around has been made and money available from the Fed, why is it the first order of business is to rebiuld a bridge of obsolesence and decades of decay, to build yet another bridge over the properrty of CSX (railroad tracks), which will soon be more than a single track? Isn't this sort of like being on a merry-go-round? Stimulus money to County to CSX under Stafford's Co's watch?
of extra transportation money as a result of the 2% tax for
VRE .. and they choose to spend that money on new roads
and new VRE stations instead of fixing unsafe bridges.. not
just recently so. but for a long time...
and the road? Wasn't it the Centerporte Parkway to that
airport also being paid for by Stafford Taxpayers?
This bridge has been a problem for many years and Milde as done nothing during his term. If one of his buds lived on the other side of the bridge things would be different. But the Brookewood SPCA site is his pet right now, not because he is an animal lover either.
Why is a failing infrastructure only "an issue in my campaign?" Should that not be a priority year round?
Who is responsible for allowing the bridge to fall into such a state of disrepair?
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