Inspection reports show need for new Lesner Bridge

The Lesner Bridge is strategically located in northern Virginia Beach, and about 41,000 cars and trucks cross every day. Inspection reports demonstrate that the bridge is in poor shape and needs to be replaced soon. (Bill Tiernan | The Virginian-Pilot via Sky13 & 13 news)

By Marc Davis
The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH

The latest inspection reports for the Lesner Bridge contain more than 140 pages and one unmistakable message: It is in poor shape and must be replaced soon.

The city has begun a $2 million project to start designing a replacement for the Lesner, which is really two spans - one in each direction - on Shore Drive crossing over Lynnhaven Inlet.

That will buy only a partial design. There is no money or firm schedule yet for a full design, much less construction.

City officials believe the bridge has another 10 or 15 years before weight restrictions might be necessary. "There's no guarantee," said David Jarman, senior project manager with the city's Public Works Department. "We're not talking about it collapsing."

But experts say a new bridge is needed soon.

The Lesner Bridge is the only major east-west link in the northern part of Virginia Beach. About 41,000 cars and trucks cross it every day. If the bridge were to fail, or if traffic had to be detoured from it, those cars and trucks would be forced to travel many miles out of their way using Virginia Beach Boulevard or Interstate 264, both of which are already crowded.

How bad is the bridge? In the past year, inspectors gave it ratings almost identical to those of the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed this month in Minneapolis. For example:

- The Lesner's superstructure was rated 4, or "poor." So was I-35's superstructure.

- The Lesner's substructure was rated 6, or "satisfactory." So was I-35's substructure.

- The Lesner's deck was rated 6, or "satisfactory." The Minnesota bridge's deck was rated slightly lower - 5, or "fair."

Coincidentally, the bridges are about the same age. The Minnesota bridge opened in 1967. The westbound Lesner Bridge opened the same year. The eastbound span opened in 1958.

That does not mean the Lesner Bridge is in danger of collapse, officials said. The bridges have very different structures. The Minnesota bridge was a steel-arch span. The Lesner Bridge is held up by prestressed concrete beams.

But those beams did not fare well in the latest inspections.

For example, inspectors found saltwater had seeped into every beam on the bridge to a depth of 2.5 inches - and nearly half of them had saltwater seepage 4.5 inches deep. Some chloride levels in the beams were 16 times greater than the industry standard.

Saltwater corrodes the structural steel inside the concrete beams and weakens them. Once that happens, no amount of repair or patching will bring the strength back, said Phillip Koetter, operations management administrator with the city's Public Works Department.

All that can be done, Koetter said, is to clean the beams, use an inhibitor to prevent the corrosion from spreading, and reseal the concrete.

Inspectors also found concrete cracking and corrosion has gotten worse in the past year. On the eastbound span, for example, total delamination and spalling - types of corrosion - tripled from 27.5 linear feet in 2005 to 91.6 linear feet in 2006.

As a result, the city is constantly fixing the bridge. Since 1995, Virginia Beach has spent $1.6 million on repairs there, including $740,000 in 2004 to deal with the concrete beams.

The next inspection is scheduled for October.

The city's long-range capital plan estimates it will cost about $86 million to replace the Lesner Bridge. The capital plan also estimates the new bridge might be built in 2012 to 2014, but that's just a guess. There is no firm schedule or cost estimate yet.

The contractor hired by the city is expected to deliver a preliminary design for the new bridge this spring. Then Virginia Beach will apply for federal construction money and hope for the best.

A charrette, a planning process in which local residents can discuss and recommend design elements, will be held sometime in October. The meeting was originally set for Sept. 13 but was recently postponed.

One element is not up for debate: The replacement bridge will be built six lanes wide, compared with the current four lanes. Initially, though, the bridge will be striped for four lanes of traffic. The additional lane in each direction will be used for emergency pull-offs, bicycles or pedestrians.

The bridge may later be striped for six lanes of traffic, but nearby residents strongly oppose making Shore Drive six lanes.

Neighbors also are concerned about a city plan to create a dredge transfer station at the western foot of the bridge. That means dirt and sand dredged from the Lynnhaven River would be transferred from dredges to trucks on the site, then driven across the Lesner Bridge to a disposal site on Oceana Boulevard.

The city says about 40 to 50 trucks a day would cross the bridge for about six months carrying dredged spoils from the western branch of the Lynnhaven River. The work would start in late 2007 or early 2008. The transfer site later would be used for other local dredging projects.

Neighbors worry that the Lesner, already in poor condition, can't support so many additional trucks a day. "It's such an important bridge to the area; why take a chance?" said Howard Weinberg, president of the nearby Ocean Park Civic League.

City officials say there is no cause for concern. "It doesn't look like it will cause a problem with the bridge," said Shana Conley, manager of the transfer station project. If a problem arises, she added, the city would reroute the trucks to Independence Boulevard, so they wouldn't cross the Lesner Bridge.

Marc Davis, (757) 222-5131, marc.davis@pilotonline.com