Aquia Bridge Closed for a Year
Route 3 Widening Also Planned
By Hank Silverberg
TUESDAY TRAFFIC
If you drive one of the 1,600 vehicles that cross Aquia Creek on Rock Hill Church Road every day in north Stafford County, you’re going to have to find another route starting Thursday, June 4. The current bridge is being demolished and replaced in project expected to take a full year. The start of the demolition was delayed for a few days by the recent inclement weather.
VDOT put in a temporary single-lane structure in 2020 to replace the old 50-year-old two-lane bridge that had deteriorated to the point that it was hazardous for truck traffic.
The project is scheduled for completion in June 2027. When it opens, it will be able to carry trucks with all legal loads, thanks to two 11-foot-wide travel lanes, shoulders on both sides, and higher railings.
Rock Hill Church Road will be closed to through traffic between Dunbar Drive and Van Horn Lane for the duration of the bridge construction.
VDOT recommends that drivers use Garrisonville Road, Joshua Road, or Mountain View Road as a detour. The workaround is approximately 8.8 miles, which means an estimated 13 minutes longer to get across Aquia Creek in that area until the new bridge is ready.
The new bridge will cost $6.4 million.
Other delays
Drivers who use a well-traveled section of U.S. Route 3 in Spotsylvania County can also expect some delays over the next month.
Federally-funded safety improvements that started this week include a trench widening, and a slight widening of the existing pavement of one to three feet on both the left and right travel lanes. The improvements are designed to give drivers more room to recover on a paved shoulder if they happen to swerve out of their lane—reducing the risk of run-off-the-road crashes.
The sections involved include 5.4 miles of Route 3 eastbound between Constitution Highway and Orange Plank Road, and 2.9 miles between Andora Drve and Montpelier Drive.
About 35,00 vehicles use that section of Route 3 every day. The federal government is paying the $974, 671 cost of the safety improvements.
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