The second of four multi-day shutdowns of the Cypress Creek Bridge will begin next week.

Starting Aug. 19, Virginia Department of Transportation contractors working on the two-year rehabilitation will close both lanes of the circa-1975 bridge that connects downtown Smithfield with the east end of town.

Currently the bridge is open to one-way traffic headed west into downtown. The multi-day shutdown will close the remaining lane from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Aug. 23, with a signed detour in place, according to a VDOT news release.

After 5 p.m., the bridge will reopen to one-way westbound traffic. Eastbound traffic headed out of Smithfield’s historic district will continue to be detoured to Main Street’s intersection with the Route 10 Bypass.

The first of the four planned five-day closures of both lanes began April 8 and finished a full 3½ days early on April 9. That closure, according to VDOT, facilitated the removal of existing ridge beams. The Aug. 19-23 closure will entail placing newly fabricated bridge beams in their place, which requires the use of large lifting cranes and the unloading of each individual beam from a flatbed truck.

The bridge will also be closed to pedestrians and cyclists during the work, though access to residences and businesses on both sides of the bridge will be maintained.

“The contractor has been wonderful to work with and has gone out of their way to minimize traffic disruptions,” said Randy Pack, who co-owns the Smithfield Station restaurant, hotel and marina at the base of the bridge.

Prior to the one-way restriction, which began in January, the bridge would see an average 11,000 to 12,000 vehicular trips daily, according to VDOT estimates. Crofton Construction, the Portsmouth-based contractor VDOT awarded the $8.6 million Cypress Creek Bridge contract in September, officially began the project’s construction phase on Dec. 4 though the restricted travel didn’t begin until Jan. 22. The two-year rehabilitation includes underwater pile repairs, the demolition and replacement of multiple bridge spans, the repainting of steel beams and replacing the bridge’s sidewalk and barriers.

VDOT, in April, said part of what’s driving the two-year timeline – the longest Isle of Wight County has seen in recent history – is keeping the bridge open to one-way traffic, save for the planned five-day full closures that to date have occurred at four-month intervals.

Projects that don’t have to maintain vehicular and pedestrian traffic can sometimes see shortened construction timelines because crews can store equipment and supplies in the travel lanes while they work on the bridge structure. Keeping the bridge one-way westbound, rather than the alternating lane closures VDOT had initially proposed in December, came at the request of the town and Isle of Wight County to minimize impacts to fire and ambulance response times.

Paul D. Camp Community College’s Smithfield center will host a forum on the project with VDOT Engineer Gautham Ramesh on Aug. 22 at 5 p.m. in the Smithfield Little Theatre as part of its ages 55 and up Renaissance program.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:03 a.m. on Aug. 15 with a statement by Randy Pack.