Residents traveling the Ironton-Russell Bridge will encounter delays next week as state officials test the Russell, Ky.

Friday, July 07, 2000

Residents traveling the Ironton-Russell Bridge will encounter delays next week as state officials test the Russell, Ky., portion of the span.

Ohio Department of Transportation District 9 workers will assist staff and students from the University of Cincinnati Infrastructure Institute as they conduct stress tests on the bridge Monday through Wednesday.

"All traffic will be stopped for short periods on the Ironton-Russell bridge during the testing," said Greg Baird, ODOT District 9 engineer. "Temporary strain gauges will be placed on various parts of the bridge along with the permanent gauges already in place. The gauges will measure the influence of loads on the bridge."

The permanent gauges were installed on the bridge last fall to collect bridge stress data and are part of an ongoing study performed by UC to measure the stresses placed on the bridge by daily traffic.

"We will be using a loaded dump truck that will be driven across the bridge to test the gauges," Baird said. "As part of the stress tests, we will be measuring the deflections (bending) and the movement of the steel with a heavy load on the bridge."

He said traffic will be stopped for about five minutes while the dump truck – fully loaded with rocks – is driven across the bridge.

"The test will be repeated numerous times, so motorists can expect to encounter several short-term traffic stops throughout the day," he said. "We are using this data to determine the fatigue condition of the bridge and its load-carrying capabilities."

ODOT officials said this testing is not directly related to the bridge replacement currently under consideration.

"Because of the age of this steel, we want to test it for future structure projects," Baird said. "This bridge is really old and we feel we can learn a numerous amount of information from it."

"These tests will help us to ensure the safety of the traveling public by letting us know what is happening to the bridge while traffic is flowing across it," he said. "The testing we will be doing is not going to harm the bridge. We wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardize the bridge."