LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Drivers started experiencing more stress on Tuesday as the Clark Memorial Bridge went from a two-way bridge down to a one-way bridge, and will be for a few weeks.
It's so the repairs can start on the 95-year-old bridge, otherwise known as the 2nd Street Bridge.
For now, drivers can only drive from southern Indiana into Louisville in the southbound lanes.
The closure and repairs stemmed from the March 1 incident, where a semi truck burst through the bridge's railing and dangled some 70 feet above the Ohio River. Luckily, Louisville Fire crews were able to rush to the scene and save the driver in just over 30 minutes.
Construction worker Steve Ebertshauser was working on 2nd Street the day the semi crashed through the bridge's railing.
"I’d like to see higher rails on the side because I couldn’t imagine going off the edge like that," he said.
Travelers who regularly drive from Louisville to southern Indiana using the 2nd Street Bridge will need to either use the Sherman Minton Bridge (I-64 West), or the Abraham Lincoln Bridge (I-65 North).
There will be the occasional full bridge closure during times when traffic volumes are low according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC). This is to give crews the room they need to set sidewalk beams.
"I don't know if it needs to be widened or not, because I'm super scared of that bridge," Terry Bouggess, a Louisville native, said. "I'm a toll guy, I take the toll just to be safer."
Bouggess suggested putting speed bumps on the bridge to make it a "slower passing bridge."
"If you wanna go there it's gonna be slow," he said. "Everything is so microwave right now, everyone wants to run run run run run. But put speed bumps on it and make it a little bit slower."
Louisvillians Vincent Gore and Isaiah Raisor told WHAS11 that the bridge needs to be fixed and the repairs are a good thing, but the closure is backing up even more traffic downtown.
Both sidewalks will remain closed during this process.
KYTC officials said the bridge will be open, with all necessary repairs done, around mid-April before Thunder Over Louisville.
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