Do it again: More closures of Arlington Memorial Bridge announced

WASHINGTON — This past weekend’s closure of the Arlington Memorial Bridge for repairs didn’t get the job fully done, the National Park Service said.

The bridge will be closed again this weekend — from 9 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

The park service said the culprit was the same as in the two postponements that preceded last weekend’s work: Mother Nature.

“Sustained high, fast water in the Potomac River” prevented crews from finishing all the work, the park service said in a statement.

“Our first priority on every project is safety,” George Washington Memorial Parkway Superintendent Alexcy Romero said in the statement. “The river was running too high and too fast last weekend to safely have some of the equipment in the Potomac River.”

Last weekend’s bridge work was postponed once by the expected arrival of Hurricane Florence, and then again by heavy rains.

The bridge will be closed intermittently on nights and weekends until 2021. The next closure is scheduled for November.

A public meeting with representatives of the park service, the Federal Highway Administration and the bridge contractor is set for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the park service’s regional headquarters at 1100 Ohio Drive, Southwest. There’ll be a presentation on the work and the representatives will answer questions.

Rick Massimo

Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."

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