Criser Road Bridge closing till September 4th

On Tuesday evening Front Royal Town Manager Joe Waltz announced that the Criser Road Bridge will close on June 4. A three-month timeframe is forecast for the nearly $1-million bridge replacement project, with a targeted reopening date of September 4.

The town hopes to have the project completed by the start of the coming school year due to the presence of both Ressie Jeffries Elementary School and the Warren County Public Schools Transportation Department and school bus yard lying on Criser Road between Remount Road and South Royal Avenue. The bridge closing will cut off access to Criser Road, the school and bus yard from Remount Road to the east.

Looking west from Remount Rd. toward the soon-to-be-replaced Criser Rd. Bridge – the bridge will be closed on June 4, with an anticipated re-opening date of Sept. 4. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Earlier this year council accepted the lowest of three bids on the project – $986,075 from Archer Western Construction LLC of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Rejected bids came in at approximately $1.2 million and $1.4 million.

At the time available funding was $786,491.65, including $561,491.65 set aside and carried over from previous budget years and $225,000 in approved V-DOT state revenue sharing money. Other funding sources accessed included $163,000 remaining from the sale of the old town police station on West Main Street and $36,583 that had been set aside to fund enforcement of a new property maintenance code that council has put on the back burner for now.

Town council authorized a $200,000 withdrawal from its General Fund reserves to balance the project budget at a mid-April meeting.