Kentucky Transportation Cabinet engineers have set Dec. 1, weather permitting, as the target for placing the 550-foot main span – a $20 million steel basket-handle arch – on the new U.S. 68/KY 80 Eggners Ferry Bridge.
KYTC District 1 Chief District Engineer Mike McGregor says the process will take 10 to 12 hours to complete and will require restrictions on both river traffic and the public.
The arch is 110 feet tall and 5.1 million pounds. It was constructed and painted on barges at the east end of the construction site. If conditions are right on Dec. 1, the arch will be floated next to the main piers and jacked about 80 feet into the air. Barges then will maneuver the span between piers 4 and 5 across the Kentucky Lake navigation channel, then lower it into position.
“Floating the new span into place is something akin to a space shuttle launch,” McGregor says. “The weather will have to be near-perfect. The navigation channel will be closed to commercial river traffic. Pleasure boat traffic will also be restricted around the site. The existing bridge will be closed to vehicle traffic and detoured for up to 24 hours while the span is being moved into place.”
See a time-lapse of bridge construction.
KYTC personnel, the U.S. Coast Guard, area emergency management agencies, police agencies, and the contractor will work to establish a 2,000-foot clear zone around the construction area during this move.
Cherokee Park, on the Marshall County side of Kentucky Lake, is recommended as a prime observation point for the public. It is downstream from the new bridge and provides an unobstructed view.
“We’re asking the public to avoid intrusions into the active construction area around the new bridge during this critical move,” McGregor says.
The Coast Guard will notify the river industry that the navigation channel will be closed for up to 48 hours to accommodate setting of the arch. Officials warn that the clear zone will be strictly enforced. Coast Guard and emergency management personnel will be responsible for keeping pleasure boats at a safe distance.
Once the span is safely in place on the main piers, the contractor will be able to more accurately calculate the time needed to place a concrete deck on the structure. “That, in turn, will allow a reasonable calculation of the time needed to move traffic to the new bridge,” McGregor says.
Once two travel lanes have been moved to the new structure, the contractor will build a permanent connection that will eventually allow four travel lanes with a multi-use trail across the bridge. McGregor says completing those permanent connections could take up to a year.
The new $131.5 million, four-lane bridge will carry U.S. 68/KY 80 traffic over Kentucky Lake and serve as the western entrance to Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. It will replace the obsolete Eggners Ferry Bridge, which was built in 1932 and no longer meets design standards for modern motor vehicles, recreational vehicles and modern freight carriers. The existing bridge required significant repair work after the Cargo Ship Delta Mariner struck it in January 2012, tearing away a 300-foot span.
The New Eggners Ferry Bridge is part of a larger Lakes Bridges Project, which also includes replacement of the Henry Lawrence Memorial Bridge on Lake Barkley.
Work is expected to start in the spring of 2016 on an additional section of US 68/KY 80 to complete a 4-lane connection between Canton and Cadiz.
Once completed, the Lakes Bridges Project will provide a continuous, four-lane route from Aurora to Cadiz, crossing both lakes and Land Between The Lakes. It will be part of a four-lane corridor extending from Mayfield to Bowling Green.
The contract for the new Kentucky Lake bridge was awarded to Johnson Bros. Corporation, a Southland Company, in February 2014. Michael Baker Jr. Inc. and Palmer Engineering designed the unique, basket-handle tied arch model – one of only a few dozen in the world.
