Muddy Creek Bridge: Keep One Lane Open

Published 4:09 pm Thursday, December 30, 2010

Rather than completely close Muddy Creek Bridge for five months during bridge rehabilitation work, one lane should be kept open.

VDOT, which decided that keeping a single travel lane open would be cost prohibitive, estimates that the detour will create at least 30 minutes of additional travel time.

Yes, the work may be less expensive without keeping one lane open during the project but what about the impact on peoples' lives? Many, many people use Route 684 and Muddy Creek Bridge in northern Cumberland near the Powhatan County line. A 30-minute detour is not only a major inconvenience for those using the road but a 30-minute delay by fire and rescue personnel could cost someone their life during the next five months.

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Citizen input was not sought in Cumberland by VDOT prior to the decision to proceed with the project and Cumberland County's Board of Supervisors were equally out of VDOT's loop. That doesn't seem the best method of proceeding.

“This goes back to a re-occurring problem about why doesn't VDOT hold public hearings or public information sessions,” Cumberland Board of Supervisors member Bill Osl said during a board meeting this month. “All of a sudden there is a notice posted on the road that the bridge is going to be closed…There is something wrong about VDOT doing this.”

Certainly it is important to keep bridges in good repair and this project will see the bridge's superstructure replaced, its substructure repaired and the guardrails upgraded. But there is nothing that even suggests the bridge is in a condition that would preclude keeping one lane open while the work proceeds. Doing so is a standard VDOT practice for very sensible reasons. Furthermore, VDOT says it considered several options-once citizens complaints and concerns reached their ears-that would have kept a lane open. So there isn't a safety issue that makes it necessary to close the bridge down completely while work is underway.

In fact, Cumberland County officials were wondering why the bridge will be worked on at all. They didn't know of any pressing need. The County, which asked, was told by VDOT this week, however, that the bridge is deficient due to section loss and is in poor condition overall, according to the National Bridge Inspection Standards ratings, and it qualified for federal stimulus funds to remedy the deficiencies.

The project is poised to begin and the detour is meant to keep the project's cost down.

But folks who may have to drive an hour extra every day aren't going to be saving money on gas. The detour probably isn't going to help local businesses. And, again, the need for fire or rescue personnel to take what could be a 30-minute detour is particularly troubling.

Cumberland Board of Supervisors member Elbert Womack reacted to the detour by saying, “It's not an easy way out of there. It could mean, when going to the hospital, the difference between life and death.”

That is no exaggeration. The Cartersville Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue Squad runs emergency service calls across the bridge to assist Powhatan with mutual aid, for example. Such concerns are legitimate and we urge VDOT to address them by doing what is necessary to see that one lane of the bridge is kept open during the duration of the project.

The road crossing Muddy Creek Bridge serves as a primary thoroughfare for many people in the Cartersville area, including Cumberland and Buckingham Counties.

The bridge is supposed to be closed beginning next Monday, January 3.

There is a better way for VDOT to begin the new year.

Again, keep one lane open for the sake of everyone who depends upon that bridge.

And after making that decision, create VDOT policies which involve citizen input on all such projects, along with that of their elected representatives, before such work is undertaken in the future.

As with all state agencies, VDOT works for the people who pay their salaries. That's us.

And that very much includes those who drive across Muddy Creek Bridge twice a day.

A detour that VDOT itself estimates will be “at least 30 minutes travel time” is an excessive burden and unnecessary because there are options-keep one lane open.

Some folks who cross the bridge two times every day may spend up to 180 hours driving a detour from January to the end of May and into June, when the project is scheduled to be complete. That is equal to an entire week of their lives. More than seven days of driving the detour.

Here's hoping they never need the rescue squad or fire department, and especially during the next six months.

For certain health emergencies, we human beings have something known as “the Golden Hour” to receive care that saves our lives. After that 60 minutes is gone, our chances of full recovery or even survival, depending upon the emergency, diminish.

No part of that Golden Hour should tick away in needless detour.

Saving money is laudable.

Saving lives is priceless.

-JKW-