By BRADEN LAMMERS
Braden.Lammers@newsandtribune.com
NEW ALBANY —
The Sherman Minton Bridge is expected to be open by March 1.
Transportation officials from Kentucky and Indiana said at a Wednesday press conference at the closed bridge that Louisville-based Hall Contracting is on track to complete its repairs to the Sherman Minton Bridge, which was shut down Sept. 9 after a critical crack was discovered in one of the supports beams.
“I’m very hopeful it will be open sooner than March 1,” said Bob Zier, Indiana Department of Transportation Chief of Staff.
Hall Contracting is on schedule with its 135-day repair timeline and has completed 62 percent of the work to repair the bridge, as of Friday, said INDOT Spokesman Will Wingfield. He added that 80 percent of the steel plating being used to reinforce the support beams running the length of the span have been installed.
With the repairs already completed, it is expected that Hall Contracting will beat the deadline to have the bridge open and will receive some of the incentives being offered for early completion.
“I would say it’s going to be no later than March 1, which is the goal, that there will not be a penalty on the construction,” Zier said. “We know patience is thin, but we also appreciate the patience people have shown.”
Among the incentives being offered are $100,000-per-day for early completion from INDOT, capped at $5 million, and up to $1 million from The Horseshoe Foundation of Floyd County.
“We do anticipate that incentives will be paid and in reality, considering the inconvenience, I think we’ll be pleased if we have to pay an incentive on this project,” Wingfield said.
However, Hall Contracting will not receive the full value of incentives offered. A portion of the $1 million for early completion was a $250,000 bonus offered by the Horseshoe Foundation if the bridge was open by Friday, Jan. 27. The contracting company is also past the timeline to receive the full $5 million incentive from INDOT.
Still on the table is $75,000 being offered per day, over a 10 day period, for each day the repairs are completed before Feb. 5. The state’s award of $100,000 per day before the deadline is also still in effect.
If an incentive is reached, Jerry Finn, executive director of the Horseshoe Foundation, said the organization would have to dip into its reserves to pay the award.
“As you know this has been a rough year for the foundation,” he said. “The money we have received from Horseshoe Casino is down $800,000.”
Part of the reason noted for the drop in casino and hotel revenues is related to the bridge’s closure, as Interstate 64 is a primary route leading to Elizabeth, where the casino is located, just over the Floyd County line in Harrison County.
Wingfield said much of the work remaining is reinforcing the lateral bracing under the bridge and is more complex than the supports being installed on the outside support beams. He added there is some additional work that is being completed while the bridge is closed to traffic.
“There is some additional maintenance work that has been done on this bridge to patch and improve the driving surface of the bridge, so that when it gets reopened it will actually be in better shape than it was before,” he said.
However, one noticeable repair that will not be made is that workers will not paint the bridge before it is reopened.
“It’s not going to look new,” Zier said, adding that repainting the span will be done at a later date.
Shortly after repairs are completed, work is expected to begin on the Interstate 65 Kennedy Bridge, which has been forced to handle the diverted traffic. Matt Bullock, KYTC district engineer, said once the Sherman Minton Bridge is reopened, the Kennedy Bridge will be redecked.
He said he expects the construction to last about one to two weeks and construction wouldn’t begin until after the Kentucky Derby.
“Of course, that work can’t start until everything here is cleared out,” he said.
