Rocker bearings have shifted out of place, KYTC says
The state transportation cabinet said Tuesday afternoon that the southbound Twin Bridge will likely be reduced to one lane until late next week.
Matt Hughes, the spokesperson for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 2, told the Hendersonian that inspectors had determined that three rocker bearings had shifted out of place under the left lane of the southbound bridge.
Rocker bearings, he said, basically allow the bridge to move, to expand and contract. According to online sources, rocker bearings also help to transmit the load from the bridge—the superstructure—to that which is supporting it—the piers or abutments, or the substructure.
The three rocker bearings under the left lane of the southbound bridge have shifted too far out of place, he said. All the rocker bearings under the right lane of the bridge are “perfectly fine,” he said.
Designers are now drawing up a plan to fix the three rocker bearings and should have that plan ready by the end of the week, Hughes said.
Implementing that design plan will start at the beginning of next week, and the southbound bridge should be fully reopened by the end of next week, Hughes said.
In the meantime, Hughes said that the plan remains to keep the southbound bridge’s left lane closed until all the repairs are made.
On Monday afternoon, the KYTC made a release that inspectors had found issues with a component in the support structure. That afternoon and into the evening, commuters battled gridlock on the southbound bridge, many of them Henderson residents trying to get home after a day’s work. Some said they spent two, three or four hours in traffic.
Hughes did acknowledge that the KYTC has in the past implemented a plan for three lanes on the northbound bridge—two moving north and one going south—while keeping one open on the southbound bridge. He did not say if that is an option with the current situation.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Robby Mills said he met with transportation officials on a different topic Tuesday in Frankfort, but was able to relay to two KYTC officials just how big of a concern having only one lane open is to Henderson residents.
He said he asked about the proposal to open three lanes on the northbound bridge but that didn’t gain a lot of traction. He said he was told that going with three lanes on the northbound bridge could not be done because of the new J-turns that have been constructed at the Wolf Hills Road and U.S. 41 North intersection.
He asked those KYTC officials to double check with the cabinet and “make sure 100% that it can’t be done.”
Hughes said—because the southbound bridge is down to one lane at all hours—that next week’s repair work will occur during daytime hours.
However, he also said that the work that is done next week will be a temporary fix.
A permanent repair for those rocker bearings will need to occur late in the year, hopefully before the holidays, he said. And that work will be done at night, he said.
