A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is making good progress on the New US 68/KY 80 Lake Barkley Bridge at Canton in Trigg County. Construction of the new bridge remains on track to be ready for two-lane traffic as planned in the spring of 2018.
The contractor started pouring concrete on the deck of the new bridge in June. All of the deck concrete has been placed on the east approach spans with two sections of the west approach remaining to be poured. The contractor has completed pouring of concrete decking on about half of the main span.
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet engineers anticipate all of the concrete decking can be completed by the end of the year. That will allow tensioning of the arch cables which would put the contractor on track to open two lanes of traffic on the new bridge in the spring of 2018.
Once two-lane traffic is moved to the new bridge work on finalizing roadway connections and other finish work will continue on the new structure through 2018.
Moving traffic to the new bridge would also allow contractor to step up planning for demolition of the existing bridge. The US Coast Guard has requested that the existing bridge be removed as quickly as possible once traffic is established on the new structure.
Motorists are reminded that the existing US 68/KY 80 Lake Barkley Bridge is within the active work zone for the new bridge, so appropriate caution is required.
The US 68/KY 80 Lake Barkley Bridge at Canton is located at US 68 mile point 8.596 in Trigg County at the eastern entrance to Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. The bridge is at Cumberland River navigational mile point 63.1
PCL Civil Construction of Denver is the prime contractor on the $128.3 million project to construct a new Lake Barkley Bridge. Again, the new bridge is expected to be ready for 2-lane traffic sometime in the spring of 2018 with finish work on the new bridge continuing through 2018.
The existing US 68/KY 80 Cumberland River/Lake Barkley Bridge, also known as the Lawrence Memorial Bridge and the Canton Bridge, carries about 3,000 vehicles across Lake Barkley/The Cumberland River in an average day.