A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) plans asphalt paving along a section of U.S. 51 at the Kentucky end of the U.S. 51/U.S. 60/U.S. 62 Ohio River “Cairo” Bridge starting Monday, August 31, 2020. This is part of ongoing maintenance work on the bridge deck and Kentucky approach.
This work zone for asphalt paving along U.S. 51 runs from the Minor Slough Bridge at mile point 6.69 extending northward to the Kentucky end of the main U.S. 51 Ohio River Bridge at mile point 7.3, a distance of about 7/10ths of a mile. This work zone is expected to be active during daylight hours whenever weather allows for about a week. Paving will be done in short sections with one-lane traffic and alternating flow controlled by flaggers.
The contractor will be laying several base courses before placing a final driving surface. The contractor will be raising shoulders and repainting roadway traffic stripes at the completion of work each day. The work will eventually raise the lowest portion of the roadway by about 16 inches, shortening the length of closures during extreme river flooding and making closures less likely.
As a reminder, joint and deck work continues on the U.S. 51 Ohio River “Cairo” Bridge with one-lane traffic and alternating flow controlled by an automated signal through October 1, 2020. There is an 8 ft., 6 inch maximum load width restriction in the bridge work zone.
The U.S. 51 Ohio River “Cairo” Bridge serves as a north-south connector for U.S. 51, as well as an east-west transportation corridor for U.S. 60 and U.S. 62. The bridge carries about 7,000 vehicles per day between Kentucky and Illinois. Almost 35 percent is commercial trucks.
This asphalt paving is in addition to an improved concrete driving surface and shoulders along the Kentucky roadway approach embankment between the Willow Slough ‘Mile Long’ Bridge and the Minor Slough Bridge that was completed August 25.
The U.S. 51 Ohio River Bridge connects Kentucky and Illinois about 5 miles north of Wickliffe at Kentucky mile point 7.372. Also known as the Cairo Bridge, it connects with the U.S. 60/U.S. 62 Mississippi River Bridge that carries traffic between Illinois and Missouri.
Intech Contracting, LLC, is the prime contractor on an $8,060,092 project aimed at optimizing the existing bridge structure and Kentucky approach in anticipation construction on a new bridge could start in the next 10 to 15 years.
The U.S. 51 Ohio River “Cairo” Bridge opened to traffic on Nov. 11, 1936. The Cairo-Wickliffe Bridge is at Ohio River navigation mile point 980.4 near the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.