DALLAS -- The heavily traveled Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington could close in 2021 without a $250 million upgrade to halt the deterioration of the 84-year-old historic bridge over the Potomac, the National Park Service said.
The bridge was closed to vehicles weighing more than 10 tons for emergency repairs last year but the on-going corrosion, damage, and degradation of the structural concrete is worse than expected, said NPS Director Jonathon Jarvis on Thursday. The weight limit is still in effect.
Jarvis said the Arlington Memorial Bridge project is part of the NPS's $11.9 billion maintenance backlog, half of which is transportation-related.
"Memorial Bridge is a significant example of the immediate challenges we are facing across the National Park System to repair and maintain roads, bridges, and other essential transportation systems that not only connect people to the parks, but that also can be part of people's daily commutes," Jarvis said.
The NPS has spent nearly $10 million on temporary repairs to the bridge since 2010 with another $5 million emergency repair due to start later this year, he said.
An inspection of the bridge in February by the Federal Highway Administration found significant damage to concrete trunnions that balance the structure along with corrosion to the metallic elements of the structure and crumbling concrete on sections where it should be 11 inches thick.
Without the $250 million repair project, the bridge would be closed to vehicles in 2019 and shut down entirely by 2021, said NPS spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles.
Traffic on the bridge averages 68,000 vehicles a day, even with the load restrictions that keep large trucks and tourist buses off the span, she said.
The bridge, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, connects the Lincoln Memorial with Arlington National Cemetery. It opened in 1932.
The repair project would involve the removal of the drawbridge mechanism at the center of the bridge, which has not been opened since 1961, and construction of a new central span.
The NPS will receive $268 million for upkeep of its transportation system in fiscal 2016 from the recently enacted, five-year Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, with the annual allocations rising by $8 million per year to $300 million in fiscal 2020.
Other programs in the FAST Act could provide additional funding for the bridge project, but that will require non-federal matching funds from local entities, Jarvis said.
The NPS will apply for a federal transportation grant and seek contributions from the District of Columbia, Virginia, and local governments for the reconstruction project, Jarvis said.
"We are pursuing every funding possibility to find a path forward to repair Memorial Bridge," he said. "It's a beautiful bridge."
The region's congressional delegation, including the senators from Virginia and Maryland, must work together on funding a replacement for the aging bridge, said Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.
It would be a mistake to fund more emergency repairs to the obsolete structure or incrementally rebuild the bridge in several phases, she said.
"At this point, nothing short of a coordinated regional strategy to rebuild Memorial Bridge is feasible," Norton said. "If we do not act now, we are seeing the beginning of the end for Memorial Bridge, which is dissolving in plain sight into the Potomac River."
The National Significant Freight and Highway Projects competitive grant program in the FAST Act could provide up to 80% of the replacement project's cost, she said.
