Urban Design Committee approves replacement of Lombardi Street bridge, urges study of bike/pedestrian transition

The Urban Design Committee voted June 12, 2025, to recommend approval of the Lombardi Street bridge replacement project, a city-led plan to replace the 122-year-old structure over CSX tracks and add shared-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists.

Committee members approved the staff-backed proposal with an added recommendation that the city and project team explore alternative treatments for the transition between the shared-use path and on-street bike lanes to improve safety.

The project presentation, given by Leonard Rhodes of city staff, described a design that reduces the bridge span from about 153 feet to 104 feet, retains a roughly 53-foot overall width and replaces a 40-foot travelway with a 24-foot travelway while adding a shared-use path on each side. Jeremy Schlussel, a consultant with Whitman Record Associates, said the work would "replace a 122 year old bridge, which is the oldest active bridge in the city of Richmond currently," and called the improvements a "very important pedestrian [and] bike connection between Virginia Union University and…