Jordan Bridge closure would strain ailing Gilmerton span

CHESAPEAKE

The Gilmerton Bridge was built in 1938, 10 years after the Jordan Bridge. A recent study listed both as structurally deficient.

But if the Jordan closes by the end of the year, as Chesapeake's city manager recommends, up to 4,000 drivers per day may opt to use the Gilmerton Bridge, which received a slightly worse rating from the Virginia Department of Transportation.

The new traffic will come just as work is scheduled to begin on a four-year, $150 million replacement project for the 70-year-old Gilmerton Bridge. It will reduce a section of South Military Highway from four lanes to two.

Chesapeake leaders applauded City Manager William Harrell's recommendation. But a day later, regional leaders and commuters tried to quantify the effects on traffic.

"I believe we are going to find that the numbers are pretty serious in terms of impacts on all the river crossings on the Elizabeth River," said Dwight Farmer, executive director of the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.

If the Jordan closes at the same time repairs begin on the Gilmerton, it would be "extremely serious for motorists," Farmer said. "We are going to see significant changes in congestion levels during peak periods if that were to occur in combination."

Farmer's staff is working on a traffic report for Chesapeake officials that could be ready by Friday.

But city officials are sure that a chunk of the Jordan Bridge's 7,000 daily vehicles will end up on the Gil merton Bridge, which is used by 35,000 vehicles each day.

Last year, VDOT gave the Jordan Bridge a sufficiency ranking of 4 on a 100-point scale, which measures things like a bridge's strength. The bridge has been closed at least five times for repairs in the last five years. It has a 3-ton weight limit.

The Gilmerton got a 3 on those same rankings. It has been closed at least 10 times in five years. The drawbridge has a 14-ton weight limit.

VDOT plans to begin replacing the Gilmerton in 2009.

During the four years it will take to build the new Gilmerton, vehicles will still have to travel on the old bridge, said Dennis W. Heuer, VDOT's Hampton Roads District administrator. And the bridge will be reduced from two lanes each way to one lane each way.

"It's going to be a mess," said Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., who asked if the city could hold off closing the Jordan until the Gilmerton replacement is finished.

How to pay for replacing the Gilmerton Bridge is also the subject of a dispute.

The cost for the project could grow to $180 million from about $150 million, VDOT officials said this week.

The Gilmerton Bridge replacement project also is expected to have a funding shortfall of up to $25 million, VDOT officials said this week. The agency intends to fill the gap by taking up to $18.5 million of state primary money from a pot devoted to widening Dominion Boulevard and replacing the Steel Bridge, a $373 million project that city officials consider important but is largely unfunded.

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, who helped obtain federal funding for the Dominion Boulevard improvements, was unhappy with VDOT's strategy.

"I think it's bad policy what you're doing," Forbes told a VDOT official Tuesday. "We may not be able to stop you, but we'll try."

The Dominion project was already in a hole, Harrell said. "This puts us in a deeper hole," he said.

The Jordan Bridge raised about $1.6 million in annual toll revenues. About $900,000 of that money was used to pay the 29 full- and part-time workers employed at the Jordan, officials say. The revenues were also used to pay for routine maintenance.

Removing the bridge will cost $2.3 million, much of which will come from an enterprise account made up of excess toll revenue.

The city is exploring creating an express bus or water taxi service for commuters to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth.

Officials estimate that 2,000 of 7,000 of the Jordan Bridge's daily vehicles are driven by shipyard workers.

Some shipyard commuters are particularly concerned because they ride bicycles to work and can't easily change their route.

"It sucks," said Marcell Johnson, a contract plumber sweating early in his 45-minute pedal to his Chesapeake home Wednesday afternoon. His black mountain bike is his only transportation, he said.

" I can't take the interstate. I don't know how I'll get to work. Everybody's been asking me."

Traditional commuters weren't happy, either.

Closing the Jordan Bridge would triple Alison Wilson's 10-minute drive to and from the shipyard.

"We're in trouble," said Wilson, a pipe fitter who lives nearby in South Norfolk. "I cross that bridge and I'm home."

Pilot writers Matthew Bowers and Debbie Messina contributed to this report.