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HOLLY WISE/Ledger and Times
Individuals who attended the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce Business@Breakfast Thursday morning had the opportunity to look at nine different bridge designs prior to a presentation given on the Lake Bridges project progress. |
Public input important for bridge plans
By HOLLY WISE
Staff Writer
A progress report was given on the Lake Bridges project Thursday morning during the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce's Business@Breakfast. The project will replace the two existing bridges over Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley on Ky. 68/80.
Tim Choate from the Kentucky Department of Transportation and J.B. Williams with Baker Engineering presented the update as well as future plans for the bridge construction.
Williams explained that the project is currently in round two of a three-round process used to determine the type of bridge that will be constructed. The first round started in April when characteristics of bridges were presented to the public and to the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC). That information is what has moved the process to the second round, said Williams.
The bridge type selection process was initially narrowed down to nine bridge alternatives and are a combination of one girder, five cable-stayed, one arch-shaped truss and two arch bridges. Williams said the cable-stayed bridge type was one of the more popular. At another public forum last night, the options were to be narrowed again to three.
The three will be presented to the public at another forum in early 2008.
The size of the new bridges is what drivers will find most comforting. There will be four 12-foot wide lanes, two 12-foot outside shoulders, two six-foot inside shoulders, a median separating the lanes of traffic and a 12-foot pedestrian walkway on the south side, which will be the entire length (one mile) of the bridge. The bridges will be over 100-feet wide.
Currently, the bridges have two 10-foot lanes with no shoulders.
“From 20 feet to 100 feet, the bridge will be a little bit wider and a little bit safer,” said Williams. “There's some forgiveness there. You don't have to worry about the mirrors of a truck coming at you.”
For complete story, see today's Ledger & Times
Story created Oct 19, 2007 - 11:19:54 EDT.
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