Official: Construction gear caused concern that led to Sherman Minton Bridge shutdown

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) – The four-day closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge was prompted by floor beams pushed out of alignment by construction rigging used during renovation work, a top transportation official said Wednesday.

That equipment on the Interstate 64 bridge led to a “binding” of two floor beams beneath the top deck, said Danny Corbin, the Indiana Department of Transportation’s major projects delivery project manager.

He said the beams were not damaged and moved back into place when the rigging was “unbound,” adding that the beams had no prior known issues. After the bridge was closed starting Friday, Corbin said, crews analyzed the span and found no other examples of misalignment elements elsewhere.

“But on Friday, we didn't know what the problem was, right?” he told reporters in New Albany. “We just saw that it was out of alignment and out of an abundance of caution we wanted to make sure that there wasn't … anything else that could have been acting upon it.”

The issue was detected on Friday when workers removed temporary bracing for a concrete pour, according to project officials.

Kokosing Construction Company Inc. is the lead contractor for the Sherman Minton renovation project, which among other things involves replacing or refurbishing all of the bridge’s roadways. The goal is to extend the 62-year-old bridge’s life by three decades.

Corbin said officials will be reviewing the contract for the bridge work to determine if any penalty will be assessed as a result of the unscheduled closure.

INDOT, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Federal Highway Administration inspected the bridge before traffic was allowed back on.

Floor beams play a pivotal role in helping transfer the weight from vehicles on the bridge decks, said Farhad Ansari, professor of structural engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Beams that aren’t aligned properly change the overall way that stress from traffic is absorbed.

“The distribution of loads that were intended to be supported by this bridge are not distributed as designed,” Ansari said. “Some members that were not supposed to take more loads are taking more loads and some others less -- and this is not safe.”

The bridge connecting Louisville and New Albany reopened Wednesday morning, returning to service the only toll-free interstate crossing in the region. Drivers had been forced to use the RiverLink toll bridges or the Clark Memorial Bridge to get across the Ohio River.

Kentucky and Indiana officials don’t intend to consider exempting toll charges for people who crossed a RiverLink bridge while the Sherman Minton was closed.

“There is no plan to relax tolls for the closure,” said Matt Bullock, chief engineer for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Louisville-area district. “As in the past when we’ve had some plain closures, we’re keeping the same stance on that.”

This story may be updated.