Loudoun's Board of Supervisors will consider the removal of the old Murray's Ford Bridge in the Ashburn area during its fiscal 2014 budget deliberations.

The estimated cost of removing the derelict bridge over Goose Creek has skyrocketed during the past decade, increasing from $75,000 in 2000 to more than $400,000 today.

The bridge is the remnant of a concrete highway bridge that, from 1916 to 1969, spanned Goose Creek as Route 643, connecting Leesburg with the Ashburn area, according to county staff. It continues to allow debris build-up in Goose Creek.

“The bridge is jagged, it's rusty, it's dangerous. The debris can lodge free,” Supervisor Ralph Buona (R-Ashburn) said Feb. 6, noting that kids sometimes camp and start campfires on a nearby sandbar on Goose Creek. “The more we let this liability go on, I think the bigger price tag we're going to have behind this."

A public hearing on the fiscal 2014 budget will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the government center. If needed, the hearing will continue Thursday at 6 p.m.


-Trevor Baratko