Kaine, Perriello: $28.9M of stimulus to pay for Robertson Bridge project

The Robertson Bridge project is a go, thanks to $28.9 million in funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, said on Wednesday.

Kaine and Perriello made the announcement at a vacant lot on Riverside Drive that overlooks the bridge. The 4 p.m. gathering gave the 100 attendees a chance to see just how crowded the bridge gets during rush hour.

The replacement bridge — with three southbound lanes, two northbound lanes and a bicycle/pedestrian lane — will cost $39.7 million.

Danville City Manager Lyle Lacy said the city already has the $10.8 million it needs to contribute to the project. With the stimulus funding, there will be no need to borrow any money to build the bridge, he said.

“This is a fully funded project,” Lacy said.

Perriello told the crowd who gathered for the announcement that, “As many calls as you have made to me about this bridge, I have made to them, so thank you to the secretary (Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer) and the governor for putting up with our persistence.”

Kaine brought a few chuckles from the crowd when he acknowledged Perriello’s efforts, noting that while Perriello is new to Congress, he is “a seasoned veteran already.”

“Even before the election, Tom was worrying me about this bridge,” Kaine said.

Perriello said the project was what the stimulus funding is meant for — to put people to work and give the area an economic advantage.

“This isn’t just a new bridge into the city,” Perriello said. “I think it’s a bridge into Danville’s economic renaissance.”

Mayor Sherman Saunders said the bridge sees a traffic count of about 20,000 vehicles a day — and that will grow to 32,500 vehicles per day by 2032.

“The additional lanes will greatly improve traffic flow,” Saunders said.

Saunders thanked Kaine, Perriello, Lacy and other leaders for their help in securing the funding.

“Great things are happening in Danville and our region,” Saunders said. “Today is just an another example of what happens when people come together to develop a plan and, with fortitude, seek the needed resources for that plan’s implementation.”

Saunders said the new bridge plans include natural gas and water lines that will be used to serve the new industrial mega-park on Berry Hill Road, something Kaine said he recently learned — and a fact, he said, that would make the mega-park an “attractive business location.”

Without federal stimulus money, the Robertson Bridge project would have been put off indefinitely.

Kaine said the project was first placed in the state’s “optimistically named” Six-Year Transportation Plan in 1998, but was pushed further and further back over the years.

Without the stimulus money, 2015 was the earliest possible start date for the project, Kaine said, but there was “a significant chance it would keep getting pushed back.” With stimulus dollars, construction of the new Robertson Bridge will start next spring and be completed in about 22 months.

Lacy said the bridge will be replaced in parts so there will always be a bridge for traffic crossing the Dan River at that location. First, some lanes of the new bridge will be built. Then, traffic will shift to those new lanes while the old bridge comes down to make way for the remaining lanes.

Kaine said this is one of the biggest transportation projects funded through Virginia’s share of the stimulus funds. There were two different stimulus allotments for transportation, with $345 million awarded on repaving roads and smaller bridge projects.

“There was a second chunk (of money) of about the same size for bigger projects, like this one,” Kaine said. “There are probably not many projects in that second category that are bigger than this.”

Kaine visited VEC Unemployment Express Office

Kaine also made a stop at the new Unemployment Express Center in Brosville, which opened about two weeks ago.

He was briefed by Ralph Price, manager of Danville’s Virginia Employment Commission office, and Barbara Redd, who manages the Martinsville office. The two oversee the express office.

In just two weeks, the office has helped 103 walk-in customers to file claims and look for jobs.

Kaine said he feels the economy is “starting to see some positive signs,” but he hesitated to call them “trends.”

He noted that when the economy slumps, the first to go is housing sales, followed by overall sales; those drops trigger increased unemployment. When the economy begins to recover, it will take a while for the unemployment numbers to improve.

The purpose of opening express offices around the state is to “target areas we know have significant activity” to speed the filing process and help people find jobs more quickly, Kaine said.

The decision to position the office between Danville and Martinsville was easy, he said.

“This is the part of the state that needs it the most,” Kaine said.

Contact Denice thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7985.