The first lesson from the bridge collapse rebuild

As a 'road fan,' assuming the engineering is proven to be completely "up to snuff" or better, I just wonder what it would take to get this outfit to build the I-69 Great River Bridge between Ark. and Miss. that is to be built, the new Henderson/Evansville bridge for I-69, and the Louisville I-265 bridge? And while we've got them, let's have them re-do the Martha Layne Collins/BG Parkway bridges over the KY River, at Tyrone (this hopefully becoming a future extension of I-30 from Little Rock, via Jonesboro, Hayti, and Dyersburg, and then with I-69 and the KY Parkways system, all the way to Lexington??) as well. Of course, we should have them build a new Cincinnati/Covington I-75 bridge, first, as it is needed yesterday!

The money they could save the Commonwealth of KY on these bridges, alone, should adequately fund the graft, 'er I mean the "preliminary construction costs," for the upgraded and new roads these bridges would serve.

Ed

 

Why, Ed, why is Kentucky looking at all these projects? All those roads were brand new the last I looked.

Which was 37 years ago. :laugh:

 

Actually, the Great River Bridge is not in KY, but between Benoit, MS and Arkansas City, AR. The Evansville/ Henderson Bridge is in the earliest stages, which is on the extended I-69 that will run between Indianapolis and Laredo, TX, and is commonly referred to as the 'NAFTA' highway.

In KY, I-69 will utilize half of the Wendell Ford/WK and half of the Edward T. Breathitt/Pennyrile Parkways, and all of the Julian Carroll/Purchase Parkway in its route through KY, with little changes to them, except for a bit of widening at certain places, and rebuilding some interchanges. (Almost every major road in KY, these days, is named for some well-known politician, including seven consecutive governors from Gov. Combs through Gov. Collins, and four long time Congressmen.) So the bridge between Henderson and Evansville (actually a few miles east, connecting to I-164) wil be by far the single largest part of KY's I-69 costs. This I-69 NAFTA Highway has been 'mandated' by Congress.

The I-71/75 Brent Spence Bridge (named for another long term Congressman) between Cincinnati and Covington is actually in pretty good shape, being much more strongly built than many, but the sheer numbers of vehicles is overwhelming it, and there is realisitically no good way to expand the capacity, hence the logical solution seems to be to "double" it in some manner. I-75 near Cincinnati is now 5 lanes each way, and that is not too many for the traffic load. The bridge has been made to four lanes, with no shoulders. It was three lanes w/ shoulders, each way, and underused 40 years ago. Plus there is a complete I-275 loop around Cincy, as well, that varies from two to four lanes. (My bride's family is from that area.) Currently, this proposal is being talked to death, with no real progress, that I can see much of, but the need is real.

I-265 around Louisville, didn't exist, the last time you looked. But it does today, both in IN and KY, but no bridge, and that bridge will serve to move some traffic out of downtown Louisville, when it is built. Louisville's big bottleneck is "Spaghetti junction" where I-64, and I-65 intersect, and I-71 begins intersecting with both.

And the I-30 extension from Little Rock is merely a figment of my own imagination, as a self-described "Roads Scholar", for there is nothing resembling a single official proposal on the board for this, anywhere, to my knowledge, but it does make sense, would utilize the existing Parkways in KY, and would serve to move a good deal of long-distance NE to SW traffic out of Louisville, Nashville and Memphis.

These roads are all actually in pretty good shape, overall, even after 37 years, just overcrowded in these places I had mentioned.

Drop back around the Lexington and UK area, sometime. We'll take y'all out to eat, get together and visit a while, and I'll drive you around and see what you can remember and recognize of the UK campus area, now with about 27K students. Just don't hunt too long for Porter Memorial Baptist Church and Central Baptist Church, at the locations where you knew them, for both are on Nicholasville Rd. (Limestone) south of New Circle Rd, which is now a complete circle, these days. And Lexington/Fayette Co. is also one entity now, knocking on 300K population, as the City and County now have a merged government.

The UK Med Center and Central Baptist hospitals are 2 to 3 times the size you remember them; 'Jerry's' is now the location of a McDonalds; the BSU has moved over on Columbia, although "our" BSU building looks pretty much the same. But you will still recognize the Kennedy Book Store, the 'Two Keys', the dorms, Student Center, Memorial Coliseum, Good Sam, Calvary Church, and last, but not least, the world famous Tolly-Ho, although the Tolly-Ho is now located across the street, on the corner, beside where Wallace's Bookstore was.

Ed