The Arlington County Board is considering a $9.6 million repair project on a 1950s-era bridge over Four Mile Run.
Officials are set to vote this Saturday on a contract for Fort Myer Construction Corporation to replace the superstructure and repair the substructure of the Arlington Ridge Road bridge.
The bridge just south of the S. Glebe Road intersection is one of two bridges crossing from Arlington into Alexandria’s Arlandria neighborhood. It’s in such famously rough shape that Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) toured the bridge with engineers in 2022 to examine deteriorated parts.
County spokesperson Claudia Pors told ARLnow that the hope is to start construction later this year, possibly sometime his summer. The timeline and the impact of the work will depend on contract negotiations, she said.
While the plan is to keep the bridge at least partially traversable during construction, that will partially depend on the overall state of the structure.
“The intent is to maintain continuity around the area, but that depends on how things are looking with the bridge,” she said.
The Arlington Ridge Road bridge — which turns into Mount Vernon Avenue when it crosses Four Mile Run — is located near the West Glebe Road bridge, another decades-old structure that has undergone significant repairs in recent years.
However, Pors said there are a few aspects of this bridge that make it more difficult to repair than its neighbor, which also crosses Four Mile Mile.
“What’s different is this is a much longer bridge than the West Glebe Road bridge,” Pors said. “There are also overhead cables in the work area that crews have to navigate that weren’t a factor on the West Glebe Road bridge.”
County Board documents say the base contract amount is $9.6 million, with $1.9 million set aside as a contingency, for a total contract authorization of $11.5 million.
