If you live in Covington or Newport, you may have seen the newest construction for the new 4th Street Licking River Bridge. Though you’re more likely to have heard the blast earlier this year that demolished the old one.
“I know everybody's excited to get to use it,” said KY 8 Street Licking River Bridge project manager Cory Wilson. “It's a vital connection for not only these two communities, but the entire region and area.”
The previous bridge was built in 1936. The new design is meant to fit the current needs of commuters between Covington and Newport: a three-arch bridge that officials say will add a fourth lane, update bike and pedestrian connections, make travel safer for all users and lift the weight restriction that previously prevented buses and other large vehicles from utilizing the crossing.
But officials had one surprise waiting for them. Once the debris was cleared, the construction team noticed just how steep the terrain is on the Covington side of the river.
“There's been a lot of clearing to make way for the work to install the new bridge,” Wilson said. “That's exposed [...] the steepness of that terrain on the Covington side.”
To work efficiently, crews have built a trestle platform — a temporary elevated surface — to get the crane as close to the river as possible. Wilson said this is an important step in assuring the substructure of the completed bridge.
“It's a temporary structure, it's a platform that the crane is able to sit on,” Wilson said. “It just allows us to reach out further toward the river on that Covington side, since that slope is so steep over there.”
For a bridge of this kind, the substructure is crucial to longevity and safety. Officials plan to install 36 drilled shafts by September.
“It's pretty lengthy for each one of these drilled shafts, but you know that's kind of the process we have to go through for each one of these,” Wilson said. “That takes a lot of heavy equipment, a lot of manpower, to get each one done.”
Drilled shafts are five feet in diameter and anchored 80 feet deep to support vertical and horizontal loadings. Crews use a five-foot round drill to excavate down, before filling each shaft with concrete. There will be 18 drilled shafts on each side of the river.
The next step is to build footers that will sit on top of the drilled shafts. These spread out the load of the bridge and help support the weight.
“We expect that to begin later this year, and then sometime in the middle of 2027 we expect to start installing the structural steel for the new bridge,” Wilson said. “That's when you'll really start seeing it come up out of the ground above the river.”
The new KY 8 Licking River Bridge is still expected to open to the public by summer 2028.
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