A contractor for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is making final plans for the detonation of explosives to bring down the 4 main truss spans on the Old Eggners Ferry Bridge over Kentucky Lake. This afternoon, the demolition team determined that weather conditions in the latest forecast will allow the blast to go on as scheduled at 6:30 a.m., CDT, Monday.
A demolition team spent much of the weekend carefully placing and checking explosive charges at critical points on truss B, C, D & E on the old bridge. The concrete decking had been removed from the structure over the last month.
There will be a 1,000 foot clear zone around the blast site. Kenlake State Park is allowing access to the amphitheater as an observation point for news media and for public viewing of the detonation.
As the scheduled blast time approaches, a tow boat being used as a control center for clear zone security will signal with three long horn blasts with 3 minutes to go, two long horn blasts with 2 minutes to go, then one long blast with one minute to go. There will then be a short horn blast to signal 10 seconds to go to detonation.
As a reminder, the contractor plans to halt traffic on the New US 68/KY 80 Eggners Ferry Bridge for about a half-hour starting at 6:15 a.m., to clear the way for the blast scheduled at 6:30 a.m. The Old Eggners Ferry Bridge is about 50 feet upstream from the New Eggners Ferry Bridge.
Once the truss on the old bridge has been imploded, the demolition crew and Transportation Cabinet inspectors will check the new bridge for possible blast debris before allowing highway traffic to be restored on the new bridge.
A detail of the blast is as follows:
· Blast scheduled for 6:30 a.m., CDT, on Monday July 25
· U.S. 68/KY 80 will be closed to all traffic from 6:15 a.m. to 6:45 a.m., CDT
· Spans B, C (navigational channel), D and E will be imploded with explosives
· Spans A and F will be lifted and removed by cranes at a later date
· There will be a blast radius clear zone of 1,000 feet
· Marshall and Trigg county emergency services along with Marshall County Sheriff’s office will patrol the lake to enforce the clear zone
· Immediately following the detonation, cranes will move into place and start retrieving steel from the lake bottom
Traffic was moved to the New U.S. 68/KY 80 Eggners Ferry Bridge on April 8, 2016. That move prompted an accelerated effort to demolish the old bridge which opened to traffic in March 1932.
Johnson Brothers Corporation of Ft. Worth, TX, a Southland Company, is the prime contractor on the $133 million New Eggners Ferry Bridge project, which includes demolition of the old structure.
The Transportation Cabinet will post video of the detonation as quickly as possible after the detonation at
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