King Bridge to close for 8 hours Sunday

12/29/2006

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge will be closed for eight hours Sunday while traffic patterns are shifted for the upcoming replacement of its drawspans, the Toledo transportation division said yesterday.

Starting at 8 a.m., the bridge will be closed to all motor and pedestrian traffic. No detour route will be posted. Access to the Toledo Sports Arena, International Park, and The Docks restaurants will be maintained from Front and Main streets.

The work will be done Sunday because it is the first day after the last Maumee River ship of the season is scheduled to leave Toledo, Brian Schwartz, a spokesman for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said yesterday. Rain forecast for Sunday should not affect the work, which will mostly be setting up concrete barrier walls to shift two-way traffic onto what is normally the bridge s westbound side.

The drawspans will be replaced one half at a time with spans that have been assembled on the East Toledo waterfront near the Port of Toledo and will be barged to the bridge. Additional bridge closings will be required during the course of that work, which is scheduled for completion by March 15.