Business & Tech

Jimmy Buffett Concert Delays Opening of $200 million Gainesville Bridge

The sold out concert at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow is the same weekend VDOT planned to open its new bridge in nearby Gainesville.

The final steps in a multi-million dollar bridge project will just have to wait. Jimmy Buffett is coming to town. 

Plans to open the Gainesville Route 29 bridge have been altered to make way for the "Margaritaville" singer's sold out concert at Bristow's Jiffy Lube Live amphitheater next weekend.  The bridge is purposed to prevent cars from stopping on the railroad tracks near Linton Hall Road. 

Traffic was due to shift onto the new bridge Aug. 15 through Aug. 17 but Virginia Department of Transportation officials decided to change push it back by one week because of the expected concert traffic. 

“With 25,000 concert-goers coming to Gainesville Aug. 17, that weekend clearly was not the best one for us to take away a lane on Route 29,” said Bill Cuttler, VDOT’s district construction engineer in northern Virginia.

Instead, the transition of traffic onto the bridge will began at 9 p.m. Aug. 23 and end at noon Aug. 25, VDOT officials said. 

During that time, only one lane in each direction will be open on Route 29 and Linton Hall Road and some turning movements will be restricted, VDOT officials said in a release. 

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Avoid delays in the area by using Interstate 66 and Route 15. Message signs will be posted several days in advance of the traffic switch.

Work on the $267 million Route 29 bridge project began in 2010. It's completion has been much anticipated by the people who live and work in western Prince William County. 

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The area is well known for massive congestion and dangerous crashes. 

In July,  a tractor-trailer traveling on Route 29 was struck by a passing train, causing major delays.  It is the third train strike in nine months at that site, VDOT officials said in an earlier Patch report. 

On Feb. 21 at the height of the afternoon commute, there was another train versus tractor-trailer incident. Prince William Police said the tractor-trailer was stopped on the railroad tracks when the train struck it. 

Just two months earlier on Dec. 19, a driver disregarded the signs and roadway markings and stopped on the tracks, causing the train to strike the rear of the car, Prince William Police said.

The driver involved in the crash was charged with the incident while two other motorists stopped in the no-stopping zone around the tracks were ticketed, police said.

How do you feel about the concert delaying the bridge opening? Leave your comment below. 


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