HENDERSON, Ky. – A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet plans to begin a T-1 Steel maintenance project on the southbound U.S. 41 bridge in Henderson on Monday, September 8.
T-1 steel — a grade of high-strength, quenched and treated steel known for being highly amenable to welding and machining — is no longer used in bridge construction but was used regularly in the 1950s and 1960s around the country.
In May 2021, a fracture was discovered in a weld referred to as a “butt weld” in a T-1 steel component of the Interstate 40 “Hernando de Soto Bridge” between Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, Arkansas.
As a result, the Federal Highway Administration in December 2021 issued a memorandum to all state departments of transportation to identify, inspect and test specific T-1 steel bridges to verify the soundness of all butt welds with the use of non-destructive testing.
The southbound bridge, built in 1965, was constructed with the use of T-1 steel. During an inspection, issues were discovered that necessitated repairs to this bridge. The northbound bridge, built in 1932, was not constructed with this material.
Kentucky Transportation engineers are working with the contractor to develop a work schedule and traffic control plan that will cause the least impact to motorists looking to travel between Indiana and Kentucky. That information will be released to the public as soon as it becomes available, according to a news release.
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