NEW ALBANY, Ind. — The Sherman Minton Bridge renewal project is set to begin in June after inspections were completed April 15. A website has launched to track its progress through its entirety.
The 59-year-old bridge connecting Louisville to New Albany through I-64 over the Ohio River sees about 70,000 cars crossing a day.
Project plans to make repairs on the bridge were finalized in early 2021 after years of discussing the possibility.
The project includes replacement or refurbishment of all bridge decks, rehabilitation or replacement of structural steel elements and installation of new lighting, among other repairs.
The construction work spearheaded by Kokosing Construction Company, Inc. is set to begin in early June.
The project is expected to cost $137 million, a 52% increase from the earliest construction estimate of $90 million.
Coming with the construction, only two lanes of traffic, going in either direction will be open.
The lane closures will come in four phases with the first two focusing on the bottom deck which heads towards Louisville and the latter half on the upper deck which goes to New Albany.
The entire project is estimated to take up to three years and the project team expects the a full closure of the bridge to be only 54 days of the estimated 843 total days of work.
Additionally, on-ramps to the bridge and local streets in New Albany are only permitted to be closed for a finite of time.
Sherman Minton Renewal has set up an email list and a text-line to send out updates as the project progress.
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