CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Repairs are finished after a damaged bridge caused traffic headaches for drivers in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake for more than a week.
On May 12, a spud barge struck the underside of the 168 Bypass Bridge on the Chesapeake Expressway, damaging one of the bridge girders, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Lane closures infuriated drivers but luckily, the city said two southbound lanes reopened on Wednesday.
The City of Chesapeake tweeted that after a final inspection Wednesday morning, Public Works reopened all lanes of travel around 11:30 a.m.
Chesapeake Director of Public Works Earl Sorey initially believed repairs could take 30 days to complete. But less than two weeks after the bridge strike, the bridge is fixed and all lanes are back open to drivers.
"We've got a lot of happy drivers out there," Sorey said. "Obviously, this will greatly assist in moving traffic through Chesapeake for the Memorial Day weekend."
He said it turned out they made the necessary repairs quicker than anticipated.
“We brought in enough crews to work 24 hours a day so when they started at 3 o'clock on Friday afternoon, they worked until the job was completed,” he said. "We're very fortunate to have some very capable contractors who were immediately available to go to work. One of which had to be flown in from Seattle, Washington because they were one of the few specialty subs in the country that do this type of work."
He said crews are still tallying up how much the repair work costs and they intend to ask the company responsible for damaging the bridge to pay the city back.
Sorey said Chesapeake City Council members allocated $750,000 to cover repairs to the Route 168 Bypass Bridge.
Drivers said they're glad the Route 168 Bypass Bridge is fully re-opened because the traffic there became a big frustration.
"Oh, I'm thrilled because people were having a hard time getting anywhere. Even near the Great Bridge bridge... you were just sitting still for 45 minutes,” Chesapeake resident Sue Hanson said. "It was really bad, especially on the weekends when all the Nags Head traffic was heading south."
Leslie Erikson said the congestion on the highway became a big headache for drivers.
“Probably take like an hour to get home, which usually takes 20 to 30 minutes,” she said. “Probably longer than 30 minutes just sitting in traffic because there's nowhere to go."
Another driver, Haleigh Edwards, said even finding another route proved difficult.
"It was crazy because you'd either have to go the back way that had traffic or you could go on the bridge that also had traffic. It was all jammed,” Edwards said.