LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Three lanes of the Kennedy Bridge reopened Wednesday afternoon soon after repairs to bolts that keep with each other an enlargement joint on the I-65 roadway.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet tweeted around 1:40 p.m. that the lane closures had finished.
The function included stabilizing a segment where about 6 bolts had either sheared off or arrive free, said Matt Bullock, main engineer for the cabinet’s Section of Highways business office in Louisville.
Crews included the new bolts all through an several hours-prolonged procedure that led to website traffic backups that stretched for about 6 miles into southern Indiana. The Kennedy carries southbound visitors above the Ohio River the companion Lincoln Bridge handles I-65 North.
Pieces of the Kennedy Bridge previously ended up shut down during the summer season right after inspectors located five missing bolts at the joint, which resembles interlocking fingers around the Indiana condition line. It’s one of four joints that link the bridge deck’s concrete slabs, letting the construction increase and contract.
The Transportation Cabinet then purchased the installation of about 100 bolts to safe the joint, completing that function by early September.
Simply because the summer months restore prepare “kind of improvised a small bit,” it was not crystal clear if that technique was a quick-term or long-time period correct, Bullock said. But he manufactured apparent that condition officials never system to repeat Wednesday’s do the job every handful of months.
“We possibly are heading to be searching some time in the long run at a much more invasive joint alternative if this carries on in a manner where we have bolts turning into unfastened,” he explained.
Bullock mentioned a single bolt was found out sheared off for the duration of a regime inspection of the bridge “in the past thirty day period or two,” when another one was discovered damaged Wednesday early morning as the repairs started.
The difficulties with the joint do not have an impact on the bridge’s structural integrity, but they could bring about injury to motor vehicles as they cross an uneven section of the deck, or roadway.
The Kennedy bridge’s deck — which includes the growth joints — was replaced as section of a $22 million overhaul in 2016 during the Ohio River Bridges Task.
WDRB Information reported in July that state inspection stories observed “errors in construction” at the growth joint shortly after the 2016 perform.
The Transportation Cupboard has said air pockets, or voids, had been produced when the concrete deck was poured, even though they couldn’t be detected. It believes the voids have contributed to the joint’s damaged or lacking bolts.
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