LISTEN: Safety Board Threatens to Close Arlington Memorial Bridge by 2021

Heather Curtis & Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com

VIRGINIA — (WMAL) The National Park Service is rushing to repair the Arlington Memorial Bridge after the National Transportation Safety Board threatened that it would have to close in four years if significant work to improve the crumbling, 85 year-old bridge wasn’t made by then.

And this wasn’t their first warning.

The Federal Highway Administration said last year that if the bridge didn’t undergo significant repairs, it wouldn’t be safe for cars or pedestrians by 2021.

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine told WMAL this summer that anyone can see that the bridge was falling apart.

“You’re talking about rust on the major beams that hold up the bridge. You have concrete that is crumbling,” Kaine said. “That’s not an exception. That’s basically the condition below the asphalt.”

This week the NPS decided on a $250 million dollar plan to rehabilitate the bridge, which involves replacing the steel center drawbridge and rebuilding the bridge deck and sidewalks.

A park service spokesman says they will put the first phase of the rehabilitation project out for bid this summer and construction will start in 2018.

The biggest concern for the project is funding.

Last year, the NPS received a $90 million matching FASTLANE grant. They applied for another $60 million grant this year, though they are unsure when they would receive the money. .