90 Tons of Concrete Beams Placed for New Bridge on Mountain Parkway
Another milestone completed on first phase of expansion project
Workers on the Mountain Parkway Expansion placed 90 tons of concrete beams on a bridge in Magoffin County.
SALYERSVILLE, Ky. (August 6, 2015) – Construction crews working on the Mountain Parkway Expansion placed more than 90 tons of concrete beams this week to create a new crossing on the Eastern Kentucky roadway.
Six months after clearing and construction work started in Magoffin County – the first phase of the Mountain Parkway Expansion – crews set 18 beams to support a 275-foot bridge over the Middle Fork of the Licking River. The bridge will carry two lanes of eastbound traffic near the new Gifford Road interchange.
“Travelers passing this new span are really seeing the progress we’ve made to expand the parkway in the six months since work started,” said Marshall Carrier, a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet engineer who is the project manager. “Our crews here have cleared the land, and they are pouring concrete to support new bridges, ramps and roadway.”
The new bridge is expected to be completed this fall. The interchange at Gifford Road, which will provide access to a planned industrial park, is scheduled to open by early 2017.
The Gifford Road project is one of three that started this year to the west of Salyersville. In addition to the work near Gifford Road, projects to make improvements to the KY 7/Salyersville interchange (Exit 75) and the KY 30 interchange (Exit 72) are entering the early phases of construction.
Combined, the three projects will widen 5.7 miles in one of the most traveled sections of the parkway.
By next summer, work also is scheduled to begin along Restaurant Row in Salyersville, a 2.4-mile segment that will extend the Mountain Parkway from its eastern end at U.S. 460/Parkway Drive to the beginning of KY 114.
“When the Restaurant Row project begins next year, we’ll have nearly one-fifth of the construction projects underway,” Carrier said. “That’s major progress in a short time for a project as large as this one.”
