Work is progressing nicely on the US 68/KY 80 Lake Barkley Bridge at Canton. The contractor has completed assembly of the arch and is moving head with placement of girders for the east approach spans.
The contractor tentatively plans to move the arch into place on the main piers sometime in early to mid- February. Like placement of the arch on Eggners Ferry Bridge, setting of the main span will be highly weather dependent. A more specific date… for that move will be announced as the work schedule firms up.
PCL Constructors celebrated the assembly of the arch for the New Lake Barkley Bridge by appropriately placing a Christmas tree at the top of the structure for the holidays. The basket handle arch main span will match the main arch of the nearby Eggners Ferry Bridge over Kentucky Lake at Aurora.
Meanwhile, with cooperation from the weather, the multi-use path on Eggners Ferry Bridge is expected to be ready to open by New Year’s weekend. The contractor has been awaiting arrival of some handrail to get the trail is ready for travel. The Transportation Cabinet plans to hold a joint formal opening ceremony for the trial sometime in the spring with state and local tourism organizations. The multi-use trail across Eggners Ferry Bridge will interconnect with the Land Between The Lakes trail system and will connect with a trail that will run across the New Lake Barkley Bridge at Canton.
There’s still a lot of work to be done on the Lake Barkley Bridge. Concrete continues to be poured on several of the piers and it continues to be an active work zone through the winter months.
PCL Civil Constructors, of Denver, is the prime contractor on the $128.3 million project to build a modern, four-lane bridge to carry U.S. 68/KY 80 over Lake Barkley and serve as the eastern entrance to Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. The target completion date for moving 2-lane traffic to the new bridge is late 2017.
The existing US 68/KY 80 Cumberland River/Lake Barkley Bridge, also known as the Lawrence Memorial Bridge and the Canton Bridge, carries approximately 3,800 vehicles across Lake Barkley/The Cumberland River in an average day.
The New Lake Barkley Bridge is located at US 68 mile point 8.596 in Trigg County and will serve as the eastern entrance to Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area. The bridge is at Cumberland River navigational mile point 63.1.
For more info on the Lakes Bridges Project go to www.lakebridges.com