CINCINNATI — Ohio Department of Transportation officials said repairs on the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge, or the Big Mac Bridge, are currently slated to be completed in March. Friday crews began the demolition phase of the project.
“It’s a very precise very systematic, surgical type of demolition work that they’re doing," ODOT spokesperson Kathleen Fuller told WCPO Friday.
While the bridge is set to fully reopen by the middle of March, the biggest holdup is finding enough steel to custom-make new beams and girders.
Officials say steel is in high demand because of a backlog of repairs needed in other places after Hurricane Helene. But they expect the shipments to arrive in mid-January.
The southbound lanes of the Big Mac Bridge have been shut down since November 1 when a large fire from the wooden playground underneath the bridge caused massive structural damage.
"What you see today is crews in maybe one area taking a small section down," Fuller said. "[They're] kind of pecking away at the concrete.”
ODOT says a project like this normally can take up to three years to complete. But these crews should be done in less than four months. Crews then will begin repairing concrete pier caps, constructing seven new girders, and pouring more than 7,600 square feet of concrete deck.
“We’ve shortened the timeline as much as we possibly can," Fuller said. "We’ve condensed it into something that is as short as possible. We ask people to continue being patient; [and] understand that we are doing everything that we can to get it fixed and repaired as quickly as possible. We are still going to…we still have to wait for the materials to get delivered.”
Once the girders arrive, Fuller said construction on the bridge will begin in January, with all work expected to be completed in early March.
Fuller said the demolition process will last roughly three weeks.
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