Part of the Sherman Minton Bridge to close for 9 days starting Monday

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Starting Monday, Aug. 5, part of the Sherman Minton Bridge will be closed for nine days.

Beginning around 5 a.m. Monday morning, the Interstate 64 westbound lanes on the top deck of the bridge will shut down.

Those are the lanes going from Louisville to Indiana.

The westbound lanes are expected to reopen Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 5 a.m.

The eastbound lanes from Indiana to Louisville will be open.

The closure was originally scheduled to start Aug. 2, but officials changed the date to avoid significant impacts to drivers over two weekends.

The original timeline for finishing the Sherman Minton Renewal Project was August 2023. The project website still shows the final phase of the project is expected to wrap up by mid-2024, but it still has months to go.

Andrea Brady, a spokesperson for the Sherman Minton Renewal Project, told WDRB that this will not be the final closure before the project is finished.

In a statement, she provided details on what this closure will focus on.

"The 9-day closure will allow crews to safely continue working on the hanger cables, which is the last of the larger elements of this major rehabilitation project. Following the replacement of the hanger cables, the contractor will work on miscellaneous items including painting completion, until the bridge is reopened to its regular traffic configuration later this year.

The project team anticipates another EB weekend closure in September to remove temporary platforms used for painting operations," Brady wrote.

She also said the project has "noted late summer as an estimated target for completion" of the entire renewal project, but Brady did not specify further.

The ongoing construction is part of the Sherman Minton Renewal Project, which involves painting and rehabilitating the 61-year-old bridge. The project is anticipated to give the six-lane, double-decked span up to 30 more years of life.

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