Truck drivers traveling though Kentucky might be forced to take an 82-mile detour.
A bridge that crosses the Ohio River between Kentucky and Illinois will be closing in early August.
The U.S. 51 Ohio River “Cairo” Bridge will shut down the week of August 3-9 and will remain closed for at least 30 days. The closure will result in an 82-mile detour for trucks.
The bridge carries U.S. 51, U.S. 60, and U.S. 62 traffic across the Ohio River between Wickliffe, Kentucky, and Cairo, Illinois, at U.S. 51 Kentucky mile point 7.372.
“By closing the bridge for 30 days,” KYTC District 1 Chief Engineer Kyle Poat said, “we speed up the construction process so we can get the bridge back to near-normal traffic flow sooner rather than later. Some of the options included overnight and weekend closures. Those options created numerous side issues for cross-country travelers, area businesses, truckers, and our daily commuters. The additional construction time would have extended the impact to traffic by 12 weeks.”
Crews will be making repairs to a 2-mile section of the Kentucky approach and to the bridge deck.
Approximately 7,000 vehicles cross the bridge each day. Thirty-five percent of those vehicles are trucks.
