Ohio River bridge at Cairo will close for a month starting Saturday

The U.S. 51 Ohio River bridge between Cairo, Illinois, and Wickliffe, Kentucky, will close for approximately 30 days starting Saturday to allow for repairs and maintenance to the bridge deck and the Kentucky approach to the span.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced over the weekend the bridge will close “promptly at 6:30 a.m.” Saturday and will remain closed until “around Aug. 31.”

According to Kentucky highway officials, the closure will allow for extensive maintenance along a nearly 2-mile section of the Kentucky approach and will enable workers to complete an ongoing deck maintenance project this summer.

The closure will also allow for what the Kentucky highway department described as “critical work” to be completed on the leading to and through a 90-degree curve on the Kentucky side of the bridge approach.

Placement of a concrete latex overlay along the curve would have required the bridge to be closed to truck traffic for an extended period, while closing the bridge to all traffic will allow all of the work to be completed more quickly and efficiently, the highway department said.

Also known as the Cairo Bridge, the 84-year-old span carries U.S. 51, U.S. 60 and U.S. 62 traffic across the Ohio River. A recent traffic count indicated 7,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily. About 35% of the traffic consists of commercial trucks.

This map show possible alternate routes for motorist to use while the U.S. 51 Ohio River bridge between Cairo, Illinois, and Wickliffe, Kentucky, is closed.Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

“We looked at several scenarios, including overnight and weekend closures,” said Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 1 engineer Kyle Poat. “Those options created numerous side issues for area businesses, truckers and our daily commuters. By closing the bridge for 30 days, we speed up the construction process so we can get the bridge back to near-normal traffic flow sooner rather than later.”

Poat said some of the options included overnight and weekend closures which, he said, would have extended construction time by 12 weeks.

The decision to close the bridge for a month, Poat said, came after extensive conversations with area government officials, farmers, trucking companies and businesses that depend on the U.S. 51, U.S. 60 and U.S. 62 transportation corridor.

There will be no official detour, according to a Saturday news release, but motorists and truckers may self-detour using the Interstate 24 Ohio River Bridge at Paducah, Kentucky, to U.S. 45 North at Metropolis, Illinois, then take Illinois Route 169 through Karnak, Illinois, to Illinois Route 37 South to Cairo or to connect to Interstate 57 into Missouri. Motorists at Cairo may reverse the route.

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