Permanent Closing: November 2008
City of Chesapeake officials have stated that replacing the bridge is not being considered. Cost estimates linger in the $200 million range, too much for a bridge that carries about 7,500 vehicles daily and far fewer on weekends. However, a replacement bridge has been considered as part of some long-range regional transportation plans. The Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization has studied the impact of building a new bridge in this location as part of a limited-access highway connecting Interstate 464 in Chesapeake to Interstate 264 (near Frederick Blvd.) and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freeway in Portsmouth.
The toll was last increased on July 1, 2003 to finance several immediate repairs and improvements and launch an evidently ineffective ten-year restoration program to extend the life of the Bridge.
On August 19, 2008, Chesapeake's City Manager William Harrell announced his recommendation that the bridge be permanently closed by the end of the year. The alternative would be an expenditure of $4 million in repairs to the bridge's aging deck and beams within the next year, and an additional $13 million in repairs within the next 10 years.
On October 14, 2008, Chesapeake City Council unanimously decided to shut down the bridge, effective November 8. City officials said the cost to permanently remove the bridge will be $2.3 million. Harrell said "the city cannot handle all of the transportation demands before us." The local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) funded a Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) express commuter bus service from the South Norfolk neighborhood of Chesapeake to downtown Portsmouth and Norfolk Naval Shipyard after the closure of the bridge, but discontinued it in January 2009 due to very low ridership.
Read more about this topic: Jordan Bridge
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