A 24-hour closing of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge for demolition work will begin at 10 a.m. today instead of 11 a.m. tomorrow as originally planned, city officials announced yesterday.
While the earlier start may catch some motorists by surprise, officials reasoned it will eliminate a conflict for fans driving to a Toledo Storm hockey game tomorrow night and reopen the bridge in time for Friday-night diners bound for restaurants in The Docks complex at International Park.
"We pushed ourselves as hard as we could and realized we could go a day early," Kristin Cousino, the project engineer for the city division of streets, bridges, and harbor.
Tom Cousino, owner of Cousino's Navy Bistro and other restaurants at The Docks complex and no relation to the project engineer, said the earlier closing and reopening is "a definite plus."
"I'd rather it wouldn't be closed [at all], but we've come this far and we're three months away from perfection," Mr. Cousino said of the $50 million bridge rehabilitation that has been going on since October, 2001.
"We just have to hold our breath and ask our customers to come the long way [today]."The closing that starts today is the second of a series planned by the city and the project's contractor, National Engineering & Constructing.
The first one occurred Sunday. Others will occur through mid-March for periods of up to four days for replacement of the bridge's drawspans.
Today, the upstream half of the drawspan on the downtown end of the bridge will be hoisted onto a barge and removed.
Preparations for that removal began Sunday and Ms. Cousino said workers got a jump start because the Coast Guard allowed the Maumee River shipping channel to be closed about 13 hours earlier than previously expected.
Ms. Cousino said the demolition of the drawspan's concrete counterweight also went faster than expected.
"We didn't really know what it would take to break that counterweight apart, and when you have unknowns, you have to prepare for the worst," she said. "Fortunately, nothing has gone wrong so far."
The city transportation division said the next bridge closing after today's is "tentatively" planned for Wednesday and is scheduled to last for 12 hours.
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