Belle Island Closed at least 3 -4 weeks. (Update to North Bridge and SouthBridge Closings.)

Hello All,
(Actual article at bottom of post)

As many have already read or been told, Three weeks back the City of Richmond shutdown the Southside Bridge due to structural issues. (IE weld & planks)
Because of the serious work and this is expected to take up to 3 months to complete.

Meanwhile, the only other access point is the Lee Bridge "pedestrian foot bridge" that links the North side of the river bank to Belle Island. Just this past weekend (2/22) a 3' chunk of cement came loose and feel from the above Lee Bridge and came to rest on the pedestrian bridge below it.

Since this time, the City of Richmond has been forced to shutdown this access point to Belle Island, leaving NO Official Access to Belle Island.

The city initially hoped to have the pedestrian bridge reopened after 3 days, but this is now a MINIMUM of 3-4 weeks.

So if anyone is trying to complete a loop of the downtown trails, you will have to ride up to the roadside (both North & South side of river are close at each trail head) and cross the top of the Lee Bridge.

Look for signs pointing you to the trails, be safe and have fun!

Click here for the latest discussions on CCVA":


Thank you,
Jay deBellonia
CCVA Admin
Co-Founder Richmond-MORE

Here is a quote from a recent article:
[ Belle Isle will not reopen for public use for several weeks because of pending plans to protect the main pedestrian bridge from falling debris from the Robert E. Lee Bridge and to repair another bridge used for emergency access, Richmond officials said today.

"It looks like it's going to be several weeks," said John R. Pope Jr., director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. "The best thing people can do right now, the average park user, is stay off the island."

Richmond public works officials said they hope to approve a design today for scaffolding that will be erected along roughly 100 feet of the pedestrian bridge from the north bank of the James River to the island. The scaffolding is necessary to protect pedestrians from being struck by debris, such as a three-foot length of concrete that fell from the Lee Bridge on Saturday afternoon and forced city officials to close access to Belle Isle.

At the same time, city officials said they are pushing for expedited approval of bids to repair the emergency access bridge to the island from the river's south bank. The bridge was closed last month after faulty welds were discovered beneath it. City officials said today they expect repairs to take several months to that bridge.

Dexter White, director of the Department of Public Works, said the Lee Bridge is safe for vehicle traffic and already was scheduled for detailed inspection in April. He said the inspection would focus on the structural integrity of the bridge, completed in 1988.

The city also is working with the Virginia Department of Transportation, which designed and built the Lee Bridge, to determine why repairs made to the structure five years ago failed last weekend. Those repairs were made after city and state officials determined that the two spans of the bridge were rubbing together,.

City officials said the two spans are touching again, but they don't know the cause or the solution.

"VDOT is working closely with us on this one," said acting City Engineer M.S. Khara. ]



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