Blue Bridge Closure to Begin July 14

Crews will begin placing signage and message boards tomorrow to help notify the public of the pending closure and then plan to proceed with the closure following rush hour traffic Monday evening. A more specific time will be made available prior to the closure.

American Contracting & Services will replace the aging bridge deck on the Blue Bridge, which connects with Indiana State Road 161, make concrete repairs and repair bridge joints.

While the entire project is slated to last through November, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is limiting the actual bridge closure to 90 days or less. That schedule would have the bridge reopened around mid-October.

The contractor conducted single lane closures on the bridge last month in preparation for this project. That closure was to allow for the measurement of specific portions of the bridge so that repair materials could be fabricated ahead of the full closure.

The necessary maintenance project will encompass work on both sides of the Ohio, including a new concrete driving surface and other important repairs, and will require a short-term, 90-day temporary closure. Previous plans called for a six-month closure, but engineers worked to streamline the repairs and shorten the closure length to reduce traffic impacts to a minimum.

During construction, crews will be fully replacing one 750-foot-long span of concrete-filled bridge decking while making repairs to a second span of the same length. As the decking spans the entire width of the bridge surface, closing one lane at a time is impossible, which required a bridge closure.

The temporary closure also allows long-term concrete maintenance to be completed, rather than short-term repairs, helping to keep the bridge safe and open for many years to come.

Work will also be conducted on the Indiana approach to the bridge. KYTC and the Indiana Department of Transportation coordinated to schedule the work as one project so that the bridge will only have to be closed one time.

The contractor plans to conduct any work that does not require full closure outside the 90-day period to reduce impacts on traffic.

Around 7,200 vehicles cross the Blue Bridge daily. The structure opened to traffic in 1940.

Traffic needing to cross the Ohio River between Kentucky and Indiana during the closure should detour using the U.S. 231 William H. Natcher Bridge.