Route 29, Main Street Bridge Replacement

This $15 million bridge replacement project began with a study of rehabilitation and replacement options for a historic bridge designed by Daniel Luten located in Danville, Virginia. The selected alternative involved rehabilitation of the existing seven-span, 830-foot long bridge to carry northbound traffic and construction of a new similar parallel bridge to carry southbound traffic.

Staged construction involved building the new parallel bridge while maintaining traffic on the existing span, shifting traffic to the parallel bridge, rehabilitating and replacing portions of the existing bridge, and shifting northbound traffic to the existing bridge.

Work included the following:

• Analysis of existing concrete arch bridge: four lanes, seven spans, 830 feet long.
• Study included five crossing locations and over 50 location options.
• Added lanes and relocated/improved intersections on each side of the bridge to improve traffic capacity.
• Design included railroad spur relocation and coordination with railroad.
• Included environmental impact assessment and reports for cultural resources, ecology, air, noise, energy and traffic. Reviewed by FHWA.
• Design for new bridge included, unique design involving precast concrete arches and AASHTO I- girders.
• Design for rehabilitated bridge included, repairs to arches and pier and replacement of spandrel columns and floor system. Special provisions were made for concrete cleaning and coloring of new concrete to match existing surfaces

Design of the bridge, now called the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Bridge, incorporated a custom-designed open concrete railing with lighting fixtures styled for the period of the initial (1920s) bridge construction. We are currently in construction phase for a retrofit to the historic bridge to add a pedestrian/bike trail and vehicle barrier.