The Gilmerton Bridge Replacement Project

The Gilmerton Bridge Replacement project is a partnership between PCL Civil Constructors, Inc., the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and the City of Chesapeake.
The project includes the replacement of an existing bascule bridge with a new vertical lift bridge over the environmentally sensitive Elizabeth River in Chesapeake, Virginia. Constructed between an existing roadway and a busy freight rail corridor, this challenging project is a great example of how to successfully reduce impacts to a project’s adjacent structures and traffic.
This video chronicles the technical and complex nature of the project, and the extreme precision required to carry out the float-in and placement of a 2,400-ton lift span for the new bridge. In utilizing the accelerated bridge construction (ABC) method of floating in the lift span, the project team reduced traffic mobility impacts on and near the site.