The Madison-Milton bridge will be closed only 10 days for replacement. A new bridge will be built nearby and used for traffic while the old bridge is removed from the piers.
The new bridge then will be slid on steel rails and steel plates onto the existing piers, which will have been made larger ahead of time.
The location of the temporary bridge, which would have temporary approaches on both sides, has not been determined, said Will Wingfield, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation. Wingfield said it is too early to say how the temporary bridge will be supported.
Traffic is expected to begin using the new permanent bridge by Sept. 15, 2012, a little less than two years from now, he said. That would make it "the fastest bridge ever to be built over the Ohio River," a press release from the state said.
The roll-it technique - called lateral truss sliding - has been done before, though not often. Wingfield called it "an engineering feat."
Buckland & Taylor Ltd. of North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, one of the firms on the team that won the contract to replace the Madison-Milton bridge, designed a bridge in its hometown where a similar technique was used with the Old Capilano Bridge.
There, an existing bridge was rolled to a nearby, prepared spot so a new bridge could be built in the vacated location. Traffic uses the relocated bridge while the new bridge is being constructed.
The move took only six hours. There is a time-lapse video of the move on You Tube.
The 10 days of closure might not all be at the same time, Wingfield said.
Wingfield said INDOT will talk to Indiana and Kentucky officials about whether there still will be a need for a ferry service between Madison and Milton, Ky., on the 10 days when there will be no way to cross the Ohio River between Madison and Milton.
One of the promises that the bidders had to agree to was that a two-ferry service would be provided free to motorists around the clock while the bridge was closed. The preliminary cost estimate for the ferry service operating for a year was $5 million, and it would require landing docks on both sides of the river.
The press release announcing the winning bidder and the method it will use said the construction plans "will be reviewed and approved prior to construction to ensure they adhere to modern safety standards."
The short closure and the lowest bid combined to make Walsh Construction Co. of La Porte the winning bidder. In addition to Buckland & Taylor, the team includes Burgess & Niple Engineers of Columbus, Ohio. The winning bid was for $103 million, which was $28 million less than had been estimated before bids were sought..
INDOT awarded the contract and announced it Tuesday.
The other teams that bid on the project said in their bids that the bridge would have to be closed for 365 days. They were given a bidding disadvantage and Walsh was given an advantage based on the length of the closure.
Madison Mayor Tim Armstrong said news of the short closure was "like Christmas in September."
Consultants had estimated that more than 800 jobs could be lost and the economies on both sides of the river could lose up to a a total of $62.9 million if the bridge was closed for a year and there was no ferry service. With a ferry service, consultants had estimated, 172 jobs could be saved and the economic loss could be reduced to $9.9 million at the most.
"I'm happy," Armstrong said.
His counterpart across the river, Milton Mayor Denny Jackson, was skeptical at first, but still felt that the new time-frame would be beneficial.
"That really surprises me," Jackson said. "I've never heard of a bridge put together in 10 days. But I'm not a mechanic or engineer. If that's all the longer it's going to be closed, that'll be great."
Corey Murphy, executive director of Economic Development Partners of Jefferson County, reacted with a sound something like "Woo-hoo," and said it was good news.
Randy Stevens, judge-executive in Trimble County, Ky., said he was "flying on top of the clouds" after he heard the news.
"The winning bid and proposal is something to be excited about," Stevens said. "Ten days of closure. I think that takes it down to a minor inconvenience."
Stevens said he had had concerns with the original plan to close the bridge for a year. He felt that the small businesses on both sides of the river would be impacted and the consequences on commuters would be "devastating."
Carroll County, Ky., Judge-Executive Harold "Shorty" Tomlinson was excited about the shortened closure.
"If it'll work, it certainly sounds encouraging to me," he said. But Tomlinson said the effort would be a hardship for anyone involved. He also said this would be "good for everyone who commutes back and forth" between Kentucky and Indiana. Consultants have estimated that 11,000 people use the bridge a day.
When Jefferson County Commission President Tom Pietrykowski was told of the 10-day closing plan, he said, "That would be cool. That would be great. That would be incredible."
State Rep. Dave Cheatham was somewhat skeptical.
"I think if it can be done ... it will be a wonderful thing," said Cheatham, D-North Vernon, whose House district includes Jefferson County. "It's common sense (that) we first need to make sure of the safety aspects of it.
"I went to many hours of meetings with Wilbur Smith and Associates (the firm hired by Kentucky to do the preliminary design and groundwork). This option was never mentioned by the design engineers who worked on this project. ...The reason we need a new bridge is the one we have isn't safe. The new one - we have make sure it is safe."
A $20 million federal Transportation Infrastructure Generating Economic Recovery grant was given toward the $131 million cost of the bridge replacement, which was far less federal money than had been requested. The two states agreed to split the remaining cost of the two-state project.
When the most recent drive for a new bridge began, Kentucky was the lead state for the cooperative effort, but announcements were made jointly by the two states. After the preliminary work was done and the project moved toward the bid and construct stages, Indiana became the lead state.
A press release Tuesday announcing the winning bidder and details about the way the project will be done, however, attributed the announcement only to Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, and the only mention of Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear was in a quote from Daniels near the bottom of the press release. "Governor Beshear and the Kentucky Department of Transportation staff are great partners, and we appreciate the Federal Highway Administration support for this project," Daniels said in the press release.
• Madison Courier staff writer Evan Shields contributed to this story.
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