Bridge span set into place

Posted: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 8:00 pm

BENTON, Ky. (AP) — A contractor has successfully floated a replacement span to the Eggner’s Ferry Bridge over Kentucky Lake and set it into place, nearly four months after it was knocked down.
Keith Todd of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said the span was brought by three barges from the Eddyville Riverport to the bridge on Monday — a trip of about 30 miles. The span was taken down Lake Barkley, through a canal into Kentucky Lake and then upstream to the damaged bridge.
The replacement span was lifted into place Tuesday afternoon, Todd said in an email.
The bridge that carries U.S. 68 and Kentucky 80 between Land Between the Lakes and Aurora has been closed since a cargo ship tore down the 322-foot span on Jan 26.
Todd said Hall Contracting of Kentucky still plans to meet a May 27 deadline to reopen the span that connects Marshall and Trigg counties.
“I’m very excited about the bridge being connected again,” said Su Festen, owner of The Hitching Post & Old Country Store in Aurora, told The Paducah Sun (http://bit.ly/JQvXna).  “It hasn’t been as bad as we’ve anticipated, but you never know what could’ve been,” Festen said.
Information from: The Paducah Sun, http://www.paducahsun.com
Published in The Messenger 5.16.12