A Management Plan for Historic Bridges in Virginia: Update/Scoping Phase

About the report:

The Management Plan for Historic Bridges in Virginia, completed in 2001 (hereinafter the 2001 Management Plan), identified the management and treatment needs for 54 bridges in Virginia that were individually eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were under state purview. The 2001 Management Plan included a recommendation that the plan be reviewed and updated approximately every 10 years. An update to the 2001 Management Plan (and periodic updates thereafter) will be required by a pending programmatic agreement regarding the management of cultural resources, including bridges, in Virginia. The signatories of this agreement will include the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer.

The current project was the scoping phase of the larger, formal update and entailed collecting information on the current status of the 54 bridges, including any major changes to the bridges since the publication of the 2001 Management Plan. Changes included major maintenance; rehabilitation work; damage; deterioration; and in a few cases, dismantling or demolition of the structure. Of the 54 bridges listed in the 2001 Management Plan, 37 underwent rehabilitation or repair; 1 was severely damaged by flooding and its remaining structure was stabilized, but treatment options are still being explored; 1 was dismantled and stored; and 3 were demolished in accordance with the recommended treatment (demolition following documentation) in the 2001 Management Plan. Although no work on the remaining 12 bridges was recorded, several had undergone rehabilitation before 2000. In the cases of bridges for which work was done, nearly all work was in accordance with the recommendations in the 2001 Management Plan.

Having the updated information regarding the 54 bridges in the 2001 Management Plan in hand will facilitate the next phase of this work: the formal update of the 2001 Management Plan for these bridges. It is anticipated that the formal update will include enhanced maintenance recommendations as well as updated general management recommendations for these bridges. The current status information provided in this report will allow the update of the 2001 Management Plan to proceed in a timely, efficient fashion.

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