Moore Brothers Co. Inc., out of Verona, VA, is working and the world is watching.

The Interstate 95 bridge over Quantico Creek in Prince William County is on the Web live, as Moore Brothers works on a $6.4-million project to repair the existing two bridges and build a third one.

The project happens to be occurring on a heavily-traveled stretch of the interstate between Fredericksburg and Washington, D.C. where Virginia DOT traffic control cameras do their surveillance work, both on northbound and southbound lanes.

“If you go to their site at www.highwaynet.com/cameras,” said Moore president William Sibert, “you can see the project pictures, which are updated every two minutes.”

“We’re working on the northbound bridge now,” he said. “So, in the morning, you can get the best view of that work. (Since traffic flow is heaviest in that direction in the morning hours). When we start on the southbound lanes, you’ll have an even better view.”

To get to the cameras, he said, go to the site, where a map of northern Virginia will come up on your screen. Click on the map to get to the lower section where Route 234 is. There are camera symbols on the map “and VDOT has mislabeled the camera for the project. It says Fuller Road and it should say Mine Road,” Sibert said. “It’s the last camera symbol on the bottom.”

“The bridge on the right is the detour bridge,” Sibert said, which Moore constructed to divert traffic from the existing northbound bridges during construction. That bridge will later serve as an “HOV” lane — a lane for commuters with high vehicle occupancy, Sibert said.

The project did not originally call for a third bridge, Sibert said, but is “a good example of value engineering,” he said.

“In almost any project,” Sibert said, “the contractor can offer what is called a value engineering proposal, which gives the same benefit, the same function as that proposed by the customer, usually with a savings shared by the contractor and the owner. In this case the amount of money is the same, but there is an added benefit. VDOT gets three bridges for the price of two, and we felt we benefited because we created a safer working environment for our people.”

The original Virginia DOT proposal called for replacing the superstructure of the northbound and southbound bridges down to the pier caps, Sibert said

“The DOT wanted us to maintain three lanes of traffic in each direction which would have entailed a lot of cost for a temporary support system to allow the removal process,” Sibert said.

The original proposal also called for just the replacement of the superstructure — the girders and deck — “everything above the pier caps,” Sibert said.

As it turned out, Moore has to replace deteriorated bridge stems, or columns, also.

“So, we proposed building a third bridge — a detour bridge at will act later as an HOV bridge, to divert traffic, so we can take on one bridge at a time. That way we can completely remove the deteriorating superstructure and replace the stems,” Sibert said.

The bridge crosses over Quantico Creek and a secondary road named Mine Road, he said.

Work began in May of 1999, after the redesign work was finished, and is expected to be completed by July 1 of 2001, he said.

Each bridge is 290 ft. (88.4 m) long and will accommodate three lanes of traffic. They will be made of concrete decking and continuous steel girders.

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