Railroad Crossing over Route 340
Waynesboro, VA
Located in the City of Waynesboro, the CSX Railroad crosses Route 340, Delphine Avenue and is an important element of a necessary widening project on this overtaxed residential commuter roadway. The short span of the existing bridge prevented the widening that would alleviate a bottleneck that the narrow bridge was causing.
The railroad bridge widening project over Delphine Avenue was delayed because of budget issues until value engineering revealed massive savings in both cost and time. Instead of removing the bridge and reconstructing it in place, the project built abutments beneath the track at the same time as they constructed the superstructure on site. They set the new bridge on its abutments only interrupting train service for one 24-hour period.
Although the Virginia Department of Transportation wanted to replace the bridge and widen Delphine Avenue, initial bidding exceeded the agency’s cost estimate, leaving the project in jeopardy. After collaborating on a value engineering proposal concept, Abernathy Construction submitted a proposal that reduced the overall project cost enough to meet VDOT’s budget. The bridge was redesigned using accelerated bridge construction, which, not only lowered project costs, but also significantly reduced the number and duration of required rail service shutdowns of the CSX railroad.
AMT provided construction engineering and inspection on this design-bid-build project which replaced a single-track railroad bridge in the same location as the existing structure. We followed the project from the beginning to ensure safety and quality. Rail traffic was maintained without using a temporary run around or a bypass structure by constructing the substructure beneath the existing track and then installing the pre-constructed superstructure within a 24-hour rail curfew. This allowed Delphine Avenue to be widened from one lane in each direction with no shoulders to a one lane in each direction with a center turn lane and full shoulders. Ultimately, through the careful planning and orchestration of construction work, the rail service was shut down only once and resumed operation within 20 hours!
Construction of the project began on September 2, 2008, and was completed on September 23, 2010. The project finished more than a year ahead of schedule and more than $1 million under budget.
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