Above, I'm standing on the eastbound span of the west approach of the Route 895 James River Bridge, looking west. This portion of bridge deck is near completion, with a concrete overlay being placed over the top of the series of pre-cast post-tensioned reinforced concrete superstructure segments. The elevated ramp under construction is Ramp G, the ramp from westbound Route 895 to southbound I-95. The segment launching truss is visible on the right. The people in the white hardhats are the participants in the ASHE field trip.

Above, I'm standing on the eastbound approach span of the James River Bridge, looking west. The segment launching truss is visible on the right. Recchi America, Inc. is the bridge contractor that was hired by FD/MK LLC to build the James River Bridge, its elevated approaches, and the bridge portions of the I-95/Route 895 interchange ramps.

Above, I'm standing on the eastbound roadway of Route 895, looking east, and the east abutment of the Route 895 James River Bridge is about 50 feet behind where I am standing. The highway has three through lanes each way on this section. The roadway has been paved with asphalt with base layers and an intermediate layer, and aggregate base stone has been placed in the shoulders. The final surface layer of asphalt has not yet been placed on the roadway, and the shoulders have not yet been paved; that will come next. The mainline toll plazas are visible in the distance. The bus that is parked on the roadway is one of the two buses that were used by the ASHE field trip.

Above, I'm standing on the eastbound roadway of Route 895, looking east, and the east abutment of the Route 895 James River Bridge is about 50 feet behind where I am standing. Same vantage point as the previous photo, taken a few minutes later, but with a 135mm (2.7x) telephoto lens instead of the 50mm regular lens used in previous photo; actually the human eye more closely approximates this long-distance view as seen from this moderate telephoto lens. The toll plazas are visible under construction directly ahead. The highway mainline has three lanes in each direction on this section, and the outer lane each way branches from the mainline into the manual and automatic cash toll plazas. The center and inner lanes each way continue as full freeway-standard mainline roadways, and an overhead gantry has the electronic equipment for electronic toll collection, and these two lanes each way are to be used only by Smart Tag customers. So the Smart Tag customers will have a bonifide freeway roadway where they can maintain the full posted speed limit on the highway. Over half of all toll transactions in the Richmond area are now handled by Smart Tag. I have one and it is very convenient.

Lead page for Route 895 Construction - October 2001
Lead page for Route 895 Construction
Lead page for Route 895 Connector

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By Scott M. Kozel, Roads to the Future