Halfway Through, Reconstruction Is on Schedule

The $27 million bridge project is set to be done by Sept. 7, although managers hope to finish before that. (By Pouya Dianat -- The Washington Post)

They said it would take two months. How's it going?

A month in, construction crews are working two 10-hour shifts each day to rehabilitate the bridge.

Ardeshir Nafici, acting associate director of the District Department of Transportation, and project manager Chase Cox led a tour Wednesday morning across the top of the bridge. From there, the Anacostia waterfront area looks like one continuous work zone, and that's been one of the challenges of the bridge project: coordinating with the utility companies and developers who also are working along the South Capitol Street corridor on such projects as the new Washington Nationals stadium.

Nafici said that's been going remarkably well, and the bridge reconstruction is on schedule to be done by Sept. 7, although the project's managers hope to finish before that. The bridge was closed July 6. The key event was the cranking down of the elevated roadway on the north side so that traffic reaches street level before Potomac Avenue.

Workers will also install lighting, finish removing the old, ugly railing along the sides and replace it with something more decorative, and finish the deck repair and paving.

"Come back in two weeks, and you'll be amazed at the changes," said Nafici, who estimated that the same job would have taken a year if the bridge had not been shut down completely this summer.

DDOT is continuing to monitor the bridge shutdown's impact on traffic. Most recently, the left-turn signal on outbound Pennsylvania Avenue east of the Sousa Bridge was lengthened to ease the backup for drivers heading north.

· Project summary: The $27 million bridge reconstruction project will eliminate a 200-foot section of the bridge on the District side and lower the rest by about 10 feet so the bridge touches down at Potomac Avenue. The long-planned project also will turn South Capitol Street into a tree-lined boulevard.