Criser Road Bridge scheduled for Monday, November 5 opening to traffic

Two views of work as it stood on August 11 – Photos/Roger Bianchini

The pending opening of the new Criser Road Bridge over Happy Creek on Front Royal’s southside at Remount Road (Route 522 South) gives us an opportunity to review stages of the work begun in June on a project now pointing for an opening to traffic on Monday, November 5.

That opening date is the most recent of a series that have been pushed back for the most part by the very rainy spring, summer and now fall of 2018.  The original target completion date for Chevy Chase, Maryland-based contractor Archer Western was October 2, proceeding through October 26, 30, November 1 and now November 5.

And if rain has been the constant thorn in the side of completion of the bridge replacement project, at least one later setback has been related to the pouring of concrete and getting form liners in place related to an architectural component of achieving a stone look for the sides of the bridge, according to Town Engineer Robert Brown.

On September 24 the Archer Western crew was getting ready to cross Happy Creek

But not wanting to have her thunder stolen, Mother Nature refused to be upstaged, continuing to bring work-delaying rains in through this past weekend of October 26-28.

However, a release from the office of the town manager the afternoon of Monday, October 29, stated that, “Paving and Striping for the Criser Road Bridge is anticipated to be completed on schedule (October 30),” adding however that due to work on the “deck and walls of the bridge” and final safety checks, the opening of the bridge to traffic would be pushed back to Monday, November 5.

And on September 27 they did – Courtesy Photos/Town of Front Royal

The $986,075 project got a go-ahead from the Front Royal Town Council on June 4, 2018.  In the planning stages for about four years, funding came through a variety of sources explained to us by Town Finance Director B.J. Wilson.

Those sources included: $225,000 from VDOT Revenue Sharing; $36,583.35 from funds previously set aside for property maintenance; $163,000 in remaining funds from the sale of the old police department; and $561,491.65 carried forward from prior years earmarked for the project.  All of the Town funding came through the general fund.

On October 29 crews were working on the Criser Road approaches on both sides of the now-paved bridge. Photos/Roger Bianchini