WASHINGTON, D. C. (Sunday, October 14, 2018) ––Motorists, mourners, truck drivers, tourists, pedestrians and cyclists have coped with six long years of emergency repairs and patches on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, and  certainly by now almost everyone has heard of its long-term rehabilitation project. Brace yourself, even if you haven’t. It starts Monday. It will alter the travel patterns of 24.8 million vehicles yearly and up to 30 military funeral processions daily. The major construction project is slated to take almost two and a half years to complete. Early 2021 seems like a long way off, but the project will have an immediate day-to-day impact on rush hour traffic in and out of Washington, D.C., traffic patterns in the region, and on traffic capacity and travel speeds on the iconic Potomac River crossing to the Arlington National Cemetery.

For 70,000 motorists each day, and pedestrians and cyclists too, the Arlington Memorial Bridge is a major commuter artery during the morning and evening rush-hours. It’s a work zone. Watch for workers and heavy construction equipment. Here is the upshot: the bridge’s capacity will be reduced from six to three lanes and one sidewalk until the rehabilitation project is finished. Until then, most alternatives routes will be jam-packed. Think detour, delays, and reversible lanes during the AM and PM commutes. “For the next two years, there will be one constant eastbound and one constant westbound lane with a reversible third lane to accommodate rush hour traffic,” advises the National Park Service, which maintains the hallowed bridge.

New traffic patterns on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which connects the nation’s capital to the Arlington National Cemetery, will start during the Monday morning rush hour, tomorrow, October 15, according to the National Park Service (NPS) in the National Capital Region (NCR). It will have an outsized impact on the nature of the commute in the Washington metro area, with two lanes in, one lane out in AM traffic, and one lane in, two lanes out in PM traffic. To allow construction crews in hard hats to safely rehabilitate the bridge and replace the drawbridge span, drivers must reduce their speed to 20 miles per hour.

Spanning 2,163 feet from end to end and stretching 60 feet in width and breadth, the neoclassical bridge carries an average of 24,820,000 vehicles year-in and year-out, including trucks, hearses, and tour and school buses. It is an average of 68,000 automobiles per day. In other words, that is a lot of traffic that now has to find somewhere else to go, beginning tomorrow morning, October 15, 2018, advises AAA Mid-Atlantic.

“If possible, avoid the Arlington Memorial Bridge altogether. Seek alternate routes and try other modes of transportation, if you can, while construction is underway,” said John B. Townsend II, spokesperson for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Plan your trips across and around the Memorial Bridge. If you must use the bridge, do the right thing, drive carefully and slowly through the construction site, watch for construction workers, expect changing travel patterns and possible delays, exercise extreme caution, and minimize distractions.”

Sunday night, construction workers will close lanes to restripe the bridge and to configure the traffic patterns, advises the National Park Service. By tomorrow morning, “the new traffic pattern reduces capacity on the bridge to three lanes. One lane will carry traffic eastbound, one lane will carry traffic westbound, and one lane will be reversible to accommodate rush-hour traffic,” the National Park Service warns.

Without a complete rehabilitation, the bridge’s concrete deck was facing closure to traffic by 2021, such was its dire condition and degree of deterioration. The sorely needed rehabilitation project has been on the drawing board for years. Yet to the frustration of the National Park Service and to motorists, tourists, and the families of the fallen soldiers, heroes and heroines interred in the Arlington National Cemetery, it was on the back burner due to the lack of much-needed federal funding and the dearth of Congressional action. 

As the long-term $227 million construction/rehabilitation project begins in earnest, big rigs, tour buses, transit and school buses and heavy trucks are still barred from using the Arlington Memorial Bridge. As a precursor of things to come along the Memorial Bridge, the long-term traffic shifts start Sunday night. At 9 O’clock sharp, skilled bridge construction crews will descend and change the traffic patterns on the showpiece span. In one of the largest transportation projects in its history, the National Park Service (NPS) will:

• Close three lanes on Arlington Memorial Bridge to begin intensive rehabilitation work.

• Shift traffic to the other side of the bridge while the three lanes are closed.

• Always keep one lane open eastbound and one lane open westbound.

• Shift traffic in the third lane to accommodate rush-hour traffic in and out of Washington, D.C.

Anyone who drives, bikes or walks across the Memorial Bridge, or boats under it, will feel impacts. A ten-ton road limit remains in effect upon the viaduct to “Valhalla,” the “nation’s premier military cemetery,” until the full rehabilitation project is completed. Until then, “vehicles in Class 6 (beverage trucks, school buses, etc.), Class 7 (city transit buses, medium semi tractors, etc.), and Class 8 (tour buses, heavy semi tractors, etc.) are prohibited from traveling on the bridge,” the National Park Service warns. Drivers should use extreme caution. “River users should watch for construction traffic and may not be able to travel under some arches of the Arlington Memorial Bridge while construction is underway” and until it ends in 2021.

 During the major construction project, the bridge, which serves as the “capital’s ceremonial entrance,” will become a beehive of activity and a turret of orange zones and construction equipment. Construction crews and skilled laborers “will replace the drawbridge span, rehabilitate the concrete approach spans, and replace the concrete deck,” explain the National Park Service (NPS) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). “Workers will employ accelerated bridge construction techniques, including using prefabricated concrete deck panels. They will reset the stone curbs and light posts and restore the historic stone and metal cladding. The structure of the existing bascule span will be replaced with variable depth steel girders, which will significantly extend the useful life of the bridge while significantly reducing maintenance costs.”   

Safety is an imperative on both sides of the orange cones and barrels across the Memorial Bridge. “Over the past six years, the National Park Service (NPS) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have made emergency temporary repairs while planning the larger rehabilitation.” The Arlington Memorial Bridge first opened to traffic on May 6, 1932. A few months earlier, on January 16, 1932, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, Memorial Avenue, and the grand entrance to Arlington National Cemetery, were officially dedicated. Nowadays, the Arlington National Cemetery “conducts up to thirty funerals each day of the week.” 

Remember: detours and closures start October 15. So will daily commuting frustrations. To help people plan their trips across and around the Arlington Memorial Bridge, new detour maps, and animations are available for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians on the project website at go.nps.gov.memorialbridge.

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