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 h...