The Virginia Department of Transportation has started work on replacing the aged southbound Fox Mill Bridge at Gloucester Court House. Photo by Bill Nachman

Work began Monday on a project to replace the southbound Fox Mill Run bridge on Main Street near the Gloucester Library. The project is expected to take almost one year to complete, state transportation officials said.

David Steele, area project manager for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said that crews began placing informational signs in the work zone Monday and closed one lane of the northbound Fox Mill bridge to traffic on Tuesday so that work can begin to upgrade the guardrails on that span.

These preparatory steps are necessary, Steele said, since VDOT plans to move all Main Street traffic onto the northbound bridge—one lane each in opposite directions—while it shuts down the southbound bridge for replacement in January. The entire project is expected to be completed by next fall, he said.

Kelly Hannon, a VDOT spokesman, termed the current southbound bridge "a functionally obsolete bridge." The bridge was built in 1917, she said, and has a posted weight limit of 27 tons for single-unit trucks and 40 tons for tractor-trailers.

To view this article in its entirety, subscribe here. Already an online subscriber? Login Here