The Kentucky
Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) awarded a $27.9 million contract in early 2018
for painting the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge which carries US 31 across
the Ohio River between Louisville, Ky. and Jeffersonville, In. Work began in
late February 2018 to clean and paint the center spans of this structure. Crews
began working on the Indiana end of the bridge and were progressed south to
Kentucky.
Spartan
Contracting LLC of Hubbard, Ohio was the contractor for the project. This work
will preserve the steel and thus extend the life of the Clark Memorial Bridge which was built in 1929. The last complete painting of the bridge occurred in
the 1980’s. The Kentucky and Indiana approaches were cleaned and painted in
2010 and 2013, respectively.
Work on the
Clark Memorial Bridge (locally known as the Second Street Bridge) included the cleaning and painting of all the steel
members on the bridge. This included all of the steel beams underneath the
bridge not visible to the motoring public. The old paint on the bridge was
removed via a blast cleaning process prior to painting the steel. The painting
is a three coat system that consists of a zinc epoxy primer coat, an epoxy
intermediate coat and a urethane top coat. The project was scheduled for completion
in November 2019.
KYTC advises motorists that all lanes and
sidewalks of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge is now open to vehicle and pedestrian
traffic and the project is complete. The maintenance project to clean and repaint the
90-year structure concluded more than one month ahead of schedule after crews
finished the final punch list of work this past weekend
For more information
on the Clark Memorial Bridge Painting Project, please refer to our list of FAQs
to the right.
