Construction crews working on repairing the I-471 Daniel Carter Beard Bridge installed the first steel replacement girders Monday. Ironworkers are bolting the first three girders in place. Trucks carrying the final four girders from the fabrication site in Bowling Green, Ky., are expected to arrive Tuesday and Wednesday.
"They're using bolts to affix them, to secure them in place, and then after the girders are in place, they will come back with fasteners and with steel plates and weld those into the bridge," says Kathleen Fuller, public information officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation's District 8. "We're anticipating that to be later in the week — say Thursday or Friday — to get started."
RELATED: Steel for replacement I-471 bridge should arrive in mid-January
Fuller says the girder install crews — totaling about two to three dozen people — are working around the clock, despite the cold temperatures forecast for this week, and are expected to keep doing so.
"They know how to dress for this type of work in this kind of weather," she says. "I've seen them out here with everything, the head gear and all the garb on. I'm sure that they're wearing lined clothing and lots of socks and layers and, obviously, gloves. They're doing their best to stay warm. It is bitterly cold because we do have some wind, and you are working up high above this ... close to the river."
Once the girders are installed and welded, the next step is installing the rebar needed to pour a new bridge deck.
RELATED: Four people arrested in connection with I-471 Bridge fire
"There'll be two pours, and they'll take one week each," Fuller explains. "The first pour will take place, and then they'll have to let that cure for seven days to come back and do the second pour and let that cure. So next week, and toward the end of the month, they should be doing all the rebar work and building that form for the concrete deck."
According to ODOT, the work remains on schedule to reopen in March as anticipated. The current cost projection is $10.5 to $10.7 million. The agency will apply for federal reimbursements once the bridge work is completed.
The southbound lanes of the I-471 span have been closed since an early morning fire Nov. 1 that burned at extremely high temperatures, warping the steel girders. Four people have been arrested in connection with the fire. It started around a playground under the bridge.
