LAWRENCE COUNTY (September 16, 2020) – Repair work on the bridge between mile point 8.5 and 8.6 at Cherokee (KY 201) in Lawrence County is scheduled to begin on Monday, September 21. The work is expected to take 10-14 days, with one lane at a time closed for 5-7 days.
The contractor, M&M Services, plans to work 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. with flagging for one-lane traffic during work hours. The lane closure will remain in effect during non-work hours using temporary traffic signals.
Work includes demolition and repair of the concrete edges and replacement of end joints on each end of the bridge.
D12 Bridge Engineer Chris Allen said that the joint on the Cherokee end is “essentially entirely failed and the concrete edges are crumbling. The join on the Blaine end is still intact, but is loose in the middle and spalling is visible at the concrete edges.” Spalling is when flakes of materials are broken off a larger solid body. Concrete spalling usually begins with the steel reinforcing embedded within concrete rusts, causing the concrete to crack, spall, and break off.