LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The years-long project to rehabilitate the 61-year-old Sherman Minton Bridge connecting west Louisville to southern Indiana via Interstate 64 will be complete this fall, project leaders said Wednesday.

In a news release Wednesday, Andrea Brady, spokesperson for the Sherman Minton Renewal project, said with the final long-term closure past them, all lanes will be open and the project completed by mid-November.

"We appreciate the public’s continued patience as contract crews work to wrap up the final construction activities of the project," Danny Corbin, project manager for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said in a news release Wednesday. "The Sherman Minton Renewal will add up to 30 years of life to this vital community connector."

The project started in 2021 and was originally scheduled to be finished by early-2024, adding 30 years of life to the bridge. It's currently in its fifth and final phase, which consists of replacing vertical hanger cables, replacing lighting, equipment installation, painting and adding permanent striping. The original timeline for finishing the project was August 2023.

At the time of the project's announcement, the Sherman Minton was the most heavily traveled crossing between Louisville and southern Indiana, handling about 90,000 vehicles per day, according to traffic estimates, or about 26,000 more than the Kennedy and Lincoln toll bridges along I-65 in the RiverLink toll network. The Sherman Minton, which remains free to use, picked up traffic after RiverLink started assessing tolls in late 2016.

There was much debate before the project began as to how crews would close portions of the bridge to accommodate the work. Drivers in the area feared a redux of the famous "Shermageddon," when the bridge abruptly closed for emergency repairs in 2011. The five months without the bridge drastically altered traffic patterns and made the Kennedy Bridge the only interstate crossing in the region, accelerating pressure on Indiana and Kentucky to start the Ohio River Bridges Project and add new spans.

Planners took into account the importance of "community cohesion" between Louisville and New Albany in crafting a traffic plan, according to the 170-page document prepared for the Federal Highway Administration. The plan was a hybrid of several of the six originally made public, including features from the most well-received choice of the public. 

The plan enacted in the Sherman Minton Renewal project estimated a full closure of the bridge during only 54 days of an anticipated 843 total days of work, or just over 6% of the time. The price tag was estimated at around $92 million, with Kentucky and Indiana sharing the cost.

The Sherman Minton Bridge is the oldest interstate bridge in the Louisville Metro area and the only toll-free interstate crossing in the region. When it's had periodic closures over the last three years, drivers had been forced to use the RiverLink toll bridges or the Clark Memorial Bridge to get across the Ohio River.

One more short-term eastbound closure is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 13. The lanes will reopen the next afternoon after crews remove the painter's platform above the lower deck.

To follow the progress, go to www.ShermanMintonRenewal.com.

Related Stories:

Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.