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One Big Honking Goodbye to Bridge
Once all traffic is shifted onto the new bridge, workers will begin almost immediately to take the old one apart so a second span can be built in its place.
The section stretching over Jones Point Park in Alexandria will be the first to go and will be followed by the portions that stretch to the drawbridge. That work is expected to be finished by this fall. The expanse between the drawbridge and the Maryland shore will remain as a staging area for construction of the new bridge until late 2007.
  Outer loop traffic crosses the new span. The inner loop will be cut to one lane this weekend so workers can align the loop and span. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post) Photos
Ceremonial Opening of Wilson BridgeA long-awaited structure connecting Virginia and Maryland was inaugurated when the drawbridge on the first of two spans of a new Woodrow Wilson Bridge was lowered into place, providing fresh hope to drivers who sit in jams like the ones seen on the shores of the Potomac River below. Panorama Dedication CeremonyThe newest span of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge is ceremoniously dedicated Thursday. The bridge will be open to traffic once final preparations have been made. Graphic What to Expect This WeekendIt's out with the old and onto the new this weekend at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. From tomorrow night to as late as Monday morning, southbound traffic on the Capital Beltway will merge into one lane while construction crews mill and pave connections from the Beltway to the new bridge. Rerouting the inner loop is the latter of two traffic shifts; the outer loop switch occurred last month. By as late as Monday morning, all six lanes will be open on the new bridge, enabling demolition of the old bridge to begin. When: From 8 p.m. tomorrow to as late as 5 a.m. Monday. Where: I-95 South from the Route 210 interchange in Maryland to the Route 1 interchange in Virginia. What: The three inner loop lanes will be reduced to a single lane approaching the bridge in Maryland to shift traffic to the new span. Three ramps will be closed and detoured. Delays and traffic backups are expected to be worse this weekend than during the outer loop switch last month. Monday: All ramps are scheduled to reopen by 5 a.m., and all six lanes of I-95/I-495 will be open on the new bridge. |
The deck of the old bridge will be broken into pieces and removed by excavators with hydraulic jaws called "munchers." Pier columns and the bridge abutment will be chipped away by hoe rams -- large jackhammers attached to the ends of excavators. And the underwater portions of the piers will be detonated and scooped from the river bed.
The real fireworks will come on a single night late next month when dozens of steel support beams on the Virginia side will be detonated at once and are expected to drop to the ground in a crash that project officials said will resemble a nearby lightning strike and thunderclap. Knocking down the beams will require closing the Beltway for about 30 minutes, so the event will take place about midnight.
"This is not a bump in the night," said Undeland, adding that the date will be widely advertised when it is known.
The rest of the demolition will be done between sunrise and sunset Monday through Saturday beginning next week, Undeland said. In all, 1,000 tractor-trailers' worth of debris will be removed. Project officials also said they plan to use significant portions of the demolished bridge as fish reef in the Chesapeake Bay as part of a Maryland state program.
Officials want to open the second span in two years. When it is done, the Wilson Bridge will have doubled in size, from six lanes to 12. Regional transportation officials hope that will be enough to relieve the area of some of its worst congestion.
The $2.44 billion bridge project also includes upgrading several interchanges in Virginia and Maryland to increase capacity on the Beltway and to accommodate the additional bridge lanes.
Most of those projects will be finished by the time the second span opens. But improvements to the Route 1 interchange will not be completed until the middle of 2009, and the Telegraph Road interchange will not be finished until late 2011.
