Fire Under Cincinnati Bridge Approach Damages Beams, Deck

The Ohio Dept. of Transportation is getting ready to implement emergency repairs on the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, which was just lately broken by an early morning fireplace beneath its southbound strategy.

The 1,300-ft-long twin tied-arch bridge, which carries a complete of eight lanes of Interstate 471 over the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Newport, Ky., was initially accomplished in 1976 and most just lately inspected Aug. 31, based on the Kentucky Transportation Cupboard (KYTC). Its common each day site visitors depend was about 51,000 in 2023.

Firefighters responding to a report of a fireplace at about 3:20 a.m. on Nov. 1 discovered a playground burning beneath the bridge at Sawyer Level Park, which runs alongside the riverfront in Cincinnati. The trigger has not but been decided. 

No less than three metal beams will should be changed, says Matt Bruning, press secretary with the Ohio Dept. of Transportation (ODOT). So will an space of the bridge deck and an overhead signal truss. The southbound lanes are quickly closed, as is the left northbound lane. 

The workforce used drones and a dog-style robotic outfitted with a Mild Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanner to evaluate injury, although a full evaluation will observe as soon as shoring towers are put in, Bruning says. 

“As soon as they get that finished, we’ll be capable of stand up there and get a more in-depth look, safely be capable of do a full inspection that can inform our selections on what precisely must be repaired, what portions of issues we’ll must should make these repairs,” he says.

ODOT employed Hinckley, Ohio-based The Nice Lakes Building Co. to carry out the emergency repairs. And whereas Bruning says a price estimate just isn’t but accessible, Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in Hamilton County, enabling ODOT to make use of Federal Emergency Reduction Program funding for the work. 

To this point, crews have largely been centered on getting ready footers and putting a 3-ft-thick concrete pad for the shoring towers, which the contractor present in New Jersey, to stabilize the broken part. However their first job was to put in perimeter fencing, as Bruning says pedestrians utilizing the park had been transferring barricades and strolling by means of closed areas.

Ongoing Restore Venture

KYTC has a separate upkeep mission underway. Picture cropped from the unique by Warren LeMay/CC BY-SA 2.0

Coincidentally, KYTC has an ongoing restore mission on the bridge’s most important span, which was not broken by the fireplace. The preventative upkeep mission is being finished now to make sure the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, also referred to as the Large Mac Bridge by locals because of its side-by-side “golden” arches, is in good situation forward of the upcoming Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project, which is able to contain constructing a brand new bridge carrying Interstate 71 and 75 throughout the Ohio River beside one other current bridge a few mile downstream. 

Lexington, Ky.-based Intech Contracting LLC is changing growth stringer bearings, cleansing and repairing concrete boundaries and arch hangers, changing elastomer seals and hatches on the prime of the arch and repairing some piers beneath a $4.2-million contract with KYTC. 

With the southbound lanes closed for the emergency repairs on the southbound strategy, KYTC mentioned Intech would expedite work on the southbound aspect while not having to fret about site visitors controls. Officers now say the mission will full forward of schedule throughout the subsequent few weeks.

ODOT doesn’t at the moment have an estimate for when the emergency repairs shall be full, although they wish to transfer rapidly—site visitors “has been horrendous,” Bruning says. The timeline will probably be decided by how lengthy it takes for supplies such because the alternative beams to reach.

“We’ll get this open as rapidly as we are able to, and get everyone again on their manner,” Bruning says.