Skanska to Lead $114M Rehab of DC's I-395 Potomac River Bridge
Skanska USA Civil will lead a $114 million design-build rehabilitation of the Northbound I-395 bridge over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., with construction starting next year, ENR reports.
The project, awarded by the District Department of Transportation, also includes AECOM and Genesis Structures on the design team. Built in 1950, the nearly half-mile-long, four-lane bridge carries about 90,000 vehicles daily and is scheduled for completion in fall 2029. Work is jointly funded by DDOT and the Federal Highway Administration.
Market Impact
The scope goes well beyond a standard deck rehab. Skanska will convert the existing 175-foot double-leaf bascule span into a fixed span using accelerated bridge construction (ABC) techniques, building the new span adjacent to the current structure and floating it into place during a 56-hour weekend closure. Other work includes replacing the bascule piers’ vessel protection system, upgrading bridge barriers to modern collision standards, rehabilitating the approach spans’ superstructure and substructure, and replacing secondary components such as overhead sign structures, luminaires and drainage systems removed during construction.
The bridge is part of a five-structure crossing complex linking Arlington, Va., and Washington, D.C., and sits adjacent to Skanska’s separate $1 billion Long Bridge North project, a joint venture with FlatironDragados to add rail capacity to the corridor. With two major Skanska-led projects running concurrently in the same river crossing zone, the DC-Arlington corridor is set for sustained heavy-civil activity through the end of the decade.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- Marine and structural steel subs should watch for early RFPs tied to the vessel protection system replacement and the fixed-span conversion, both design-build packages under Skanska USA Civil ahead of the 2027 construction start.
- Traffic control and signage contractors have a defined scope: overhead sign structures, luminaires and bridge drainage replacement are explicitly called out as separate work packages.
- Firms with weekend shutdown and rapid-erection experience should position for the float-in operation, since the new span installation is compressed into a single 56-hour closure window and will require specialized rigging and barge crews.
- Barrier and collision-standard retrofit specialists should track DDOT bid packages as the project modernizes bridge barriers to current safety codes, a scope item distinct from the main span conversion.
- General contractors and structural subs already qualified for Long Bridge North should note the geographic overlap, as both projects run through 2029 in the same corridor and may share staging, logistics or subcontractor pools.
