The Virginia Difference

Abstract

Designed in-house by the Virginia Department of Transportation, the recently completed Route 340 South Fork Bridge, in Front Royal, replaces an existing structure that dated to the early 1940s. The longest jointless steel bridge in Virginia, the new 1,910 ft long steel plate girder bridge incorporates the unique “Virginia abutment” to accommodate significant thermal movements and avoid problems associated with the interaction of soil and pavement that are common to long bridges that have integral abutments.