CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The moving of a City Council Dairy Road Bridge design plan consideration to the Dec. 1 meeting is just a bump in the road, so to speak.

“It needs to be replaced, and not only the bridge horizontal pieces, but vertical pieces like the supports that go down into the dirt and the foundations, as well,” Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said Tuesday during an appearance on WINA Morning News.

It’s an urgency not lost on Pinkston, who is a construction project manager in his non-public official life.

Even though a proposal and presentation was in the agenda items, complete with a Power Point, Pinkston said staff requested the move to the next meeting.

He offered no explanation.

The bridge was built in 1953 and was designed to last 50 years. It has not been replaced and load restrictions were instituted in 2007.

Public commenters at an information session at Upper Walker Elementary School in July expressed concerns to make the bridge aesthetically pleasing, be built in as quick a time as possible, and with as little traffic impact during construction as possible.

The construction timeline in the proposal is 12-to-14 months, and staff promised to monitor detour adjustments to minimize impact.

Neither Wade nor Pinkston specified what part of those concerns necessitates the two-week postponement.

But Pinkston said, “It needs to be done and it’s going to be a significant project that will definitely impact traffic in and around that whole area.”

“What I recommend to folks is to pay attention to updates as they come out in terms of the schedule, detour plans, and so forth.”

Pinkston said the good news is the $12.62-million price tag will be paid entirely out of the “State of Good Repairs Fund” of the state government in light of the bridge receiving a “poor” rating in a March 2025 inspection.