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BY CATHY JETT

Want a preview of the bridge that will soon connect Eagle Village with the University of Mary Washington's main campus?

Check the fenced area behind the Twi-Lite Motel in the former Park & Shop retail center. Pieces are being trucked in there and will be assembled into two parts that will be craned into place over U.S. 1 beginning Friday, Jan. 15.

"[A portion of] U.S. 1 will be shut down through Sunday afternoon," said Jeff Rountree, the UMW Foundation's CEO and president of Eagle Property. "That Monday is a holiday which gives them an extra day to use if they need more time."

Envisioned as a gateway to Fredericksburg, the enclosed, red-brick structure will have glass sides and cupola-topped towers at each end. It will be 214 feet long and, at 14 feet wide, will comfortably accommodate bicycles and electric utility carts (such as golf carts) as well as pedestrians.

Once the bridge is finished, users can access it via a walkway in Eagle Village. They'll have to turn right in front of what will be the Anderson Center and follow a path to the sidewalk on College Avenue to get to the campus or the College Heights neighborhood.

The first phase of Eagle Village's renovation as a mixed-use property, which UMW's nonprofit foundation is overseeing, also includes construction of a parking garage with office, retail and restaurant space, and an apartment-style dormitory that will be called Eagle Landing when it opens in August.

"They poured the final roofs on both buildings today, which could not have been better timing with the snow coming," Rountree said last Friday. "Now we're under roof and ready to go."

To prepare for the interior portion of the project, construction workers have been building an exact replica of one of the new dorm apartments inside what used to be Frank's Nursery & Crafts.