Henrico in talks with CSX to take control of canals, bridges for public safety

HENRICO, Va. (WWBT)—Henrico County is working with CSX to acquire property from the rail operator, including canals and several bridges.

It is all with safety at the top of mind.

County officials took 12 On Your Side on a special tour to view the bridges in question, beginning with one off River Road.

It gives direct access to several private residences across a canal. Still, leaders say it is not stable enough to support a fire truck or other first responders in case of an emergency.

“We were approached by the residents down here, given the public safety concern and given the structural problems with these bridges,” Henrico County Deputy Manager for Community Operations Steve Yob said.

“We want to be able to get emergency personnel across the bridge in case there’s a need, so fire, police, ambulance across the bridge,” Tuckahoe District Supervisor Jody Rogish said.

There are new wood marks where CSX has tried to patch parts of the century-old bridge, but there are still split boards and rotting wood in other places.

Henrico County says it is not good enough.

“They run railroads, they don’t run canals and pedestrian or residential bridges,” Yob said. “So it took a number of conversations with CSX before we really came up with a solution that would work.”

Through the deal, CSX will donate roughly 5 miles of canals and 50 acres of land to Henrico, so the county can assume the responsibility of maintaining the bridges.

There are four bridges included in the handover.

The first is located off River Road at the intersection of Huguenot Road.

“This one was built actually originally in the early 1900s to cross the canal for these residents to access River Road,” Rogish said. “There’s a long history on this canal, originally commissioned by George Washington in the late 1700s to get shipping and goods, you know, through the Richmond area. That’s where this canal originally started.”

The second bridge is off Westham Station Road and has missing support beams underneath.

The third bridge is near the Roslyn Retreat Center, and the fourth is on private property.

Henrico wants to replace them with prefabricated steel bridges that can withstand flooding and other stressors.

“You buy them. They’re not off the shelf. They make them for the situation, but you essentially bolt them up on the dry land, you pick them up with a crane, and you drop them on concrete foundations, and the bridge is good to go,” Yob said.

Once the agreement is approved, the county estimates it will take three to six months to finalize everything.

“Provided that is approved, we will start the due diligence period,” Yob said. “Now, due diligence means we have to do title work, make sure there are no encumbrances on the title for the canal. We will have to do an accurate on-the-ground survey. And the records for this are very old, so that’s going to require some research. And then finally, we’ll do environmental work to make sure that environmentally we know completely about everything we’re buying and that we do go into this with our eyes wide open.”

County leaders say there is a lot of potential for owning the canals for recreation in the future, but nothing would be in the near term, and it would all be subject to public input.