The Brookport Bridge at Paducah will reopen with new barriers to ensure its weight and width limits are enforced.
The Brookport Bridge at Paducah will reopen with new barriers to ensure its weight and width limits are enforced.
Maintenance, repair and upgrades to the Brookport Bridge at Paducah are scheduled for completion by the end of October.
U.S. Highway 45 was closed at the Ohio River on May 8 so that $400,000 in upkeep could preserve the bridge. The pass, also known as the Irvin Cobb Bridge, will boast new signage clarifying a new 15-ton load limit, enforcing its eight-foot load width and incorporating a new 9 1/2-foot barrier in place at the end of the bridge to exclude all vehicles over that height.
Illegal truck traffic has been a problem on the Massac County bridge for years. The 10-span structure carries an estimated 5,000 vehicles each day.
Illinois state Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg)
"This should be adequate for the next 10 years, until we get a new bridge," Illinois state Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg), said. "Plans are to replace it in seven or eight years."
Despite its moniker, the City of Brookport owns a very small fraction of its namesake bridge.
"This is a Kentucky project," Fowler said. "Illinois is not all that involved."
New signs are being installed on approaches to the aged, wooden bridge, revising the prior 31-ton weight restriction. Repair items include three new concrete pier caps with protective carbon-fiber wrap. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's official reopening date for U.S. 45 is Nov. 1.
Traffic has been detoured to I-24 during the maintenance work. Judy C. Harp Co. is the prime contractor on this project.
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