Truckers Face Delays Around Louisville Area, as I-64 Bridge Is Closed After Crack Found

Trucking companies are facing significant delays and detours around Louisville following a sudden bridge closure on Interstate 64.

The Sherman Minton Bridge, which links Kentucky and Indiana, was closed on Sept. 9 after a “crack in the critical load-carrying element of the bridge” was discovered, according to the Indiana Department of Transportation.

As a result, fleets are “adjusting some of their routing,” Jamie Fiepke, president of the Kentucky Motor Transport Association, told Transport Topics.

Fiepke added that carriers are avoiding Interstate 65, which is part of the detour around the bridge, especially during the morning rush hour.

“[I-65] is a major artery, and once it gets blocked it impacts everything,” he said. “Everything coming from Chicago — if it’s coming to Kentucky — it’s going on 65.”

About 180,000 vehicles travel on Interstate 65 a day, and about 80,000 had traveled each day on the part of I-64 that includes the bridge before it was closed, Fiepke estimated.

The morning rush hour has the worst congestion in the detour area, he said.

“In the mornings, they’re definitely looking for ways to avoid it,” Fiepke said. During other times of the day, carriers might find it easier to go through the detour route.

Indiana carriers also have to make adjustments, said Gary Langston, president of the Indiana Motor Truck Association.

“It’s a big deal, as far as being able to move as you would normally,” he said. “It will require additional planning as far as how they’re going to get around that.”

Transportation officials in both states said the bridge will be closed until at least the end of September as crews run a variety of tests.

“There’s a good bit of testing that is going to be done,” said Chuck Wolfe, spokesman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which is the state’s transportation department.

Though truckers occasionally have to deal with temporary closures or restrictions, the Sherman Minton Bridge closing is unique in that it is completely shut to all vehicles, Langston said.

“It’s well beyond just taking a couple of extra minutes. There aren’t a lot of good alternatives to deal with it, and those that exist are needed by everyone,” he said. “It will require companies that use that corridor to rethink how they operate.”

UPS Inc., whose international air cargo hub is at Louisville International Airport, has adjusted some of its trucking routes throughout the area, though schedules mostly remain the same, spokesman Mike Mangeot said.

“At this point, we do not plan to make any changes to our operating schedules or delivery routes,” he said.

Wolfe, the Kentucky transportation official, told TT last week that testing on the bridge, which includes radiography and ultrasound, was started soon after the crack was found and will continue for about three weeks.

“Once that testing is completed and results are analyzed, then we should know exactly what we’re dealing with,” Wolfe said.

Officials do not know when the bridge will be ready for traffic again, he said. “It’s kind of up in the air.”

The bridge is more susceptible to failure than other bridges in part because of its “tied-arch” design, INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield said. The design is less redundant than for most bridges of its size, its materials are less resistant to cracking and the construction techniques used make it more susceptible to cracking, he said.

“Research and technology in the bridge-building industry has advanced in the past 50 years, and what we’ve learned since then about each of those elements has led to additional concerns about . . . this bridge,” Wingfield said.

The Sherman Minton Bridge was built in 1962, Wolfe said. It’s inspected every two years, and previous inspections had not revealed major problems.

Workers found the crack during one of the routine, biennial inspections, which was begun earlier this year and takes months to complete, Wolfe said.