Route 50 lanes closed at night for bridge repair at Gallows Road

Broken concrete on the Gallows Road bridge over Route 50. [VDOT]

You might want to avoid driving at night on Route 50 under the Gallows Road interchange for the next few weeks.

The Virginia Department of Transportation started a project to repair the center pier of the overpass Sept. 8. The left lane of eastbound Route 50 and the left lane of westbound Route 50 will be closed Monday through Thursday from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The project should be finished in late October, says VDOT spokesperson Mike Murphy.

The work under way now is the first phase of a bridge rehabilitation project. The first phase’s total cost is $510,000. The second phase, with a total cost of $2.1 million, is scheduled to begin next year.

According to VDOT, the work needs to be done because “the substructure is in poor condition due to significant concrete spalling on the pier cap and columns at both ends of the pier.”

The bridge was built in 1985. Average daily traffic in 2014 was 39,000 vehicles on Gallows Road over Route 50 and 40,000 vehicles on Route 50 under the bridge.