Alonzo Robinson was confident a big concrete pour will occur on schedule Thursday as part of the Monroe Street bridge redecking project over I-475 in West Toledo, despite forecasts calling for potential thunderstorms.
“We’ve got a big bubble around this job site — a no-rain bubble,” the construction worker with Canton, Ohio-based Beaver Excavating said Wednesday.
Dan Kelsey, the Ohio Department of Transportation’s project engineer, said an official decision on whether to proceed with the pour will likely be made early Thursday afternoon.
If it can’t go Thursday night, he said , the weather forecast doesn’t look much better until early next week.
That uncertainty notwithstanding, Mr. Kelsey said the deck replacement that shut the busy bridge down just after Memorial Day is on, if not slightly ahead of, schedule for an Aug. 28 reopening — just before Labor Day weekend.
“The contractor’s moving along nicely,” Mr. Kelsey said. “They are on schedule.”
Workers prepared Wednesday morning in part by finishing the installation of mobile work bridges that will be used during the concrete pour. The first is used for pouring the concrete itself, the second to carry workers who will smooth out and level off the surface, and the third for applying wet-burlap and plastic covering to protect the freshly poured concrete from the elements.
The pour will use about 510 cubic yards of concrete — about 51 mixer trucks’ worth — and should take about 10 hours to complete, Mr. Kelsey said.
If it occurs on schedule, I-475 will be reduced to one lane each way under the Monroe bridge from 8 p.m. Thursday until 6 a.m. Friday.
During and after the seven days the concrete needs to cure, crews will construct approach slabs, pave streets beyond the slabs, and do other work, Mr. Kelsey said.
As of Wednesday, the asphalt street paving was tentatively scheduled for the second week of August.
Traffic remains detoured via Secor Road and Central Avenue. A pedestrian detour is also posted using local streets.
When the bridge reopens, it initially will be one lane each way, with a temporary sidewalk along the eastbound lane.
For a few weeks after that, crews will finish the sidewalk and side walls on the westbound side. Then the sidewalk and a second lane of westbound traffic will open while the bridge’s eastbound side is finished.
All lanes are scheduled to reopen by Sept. 28.
Mr. Robinson, who lives in South Toledo, said he’s proud to work on local projects like the Monroe bridge, and he and his co-workers typically sign their names in an inconspicuous location in the concrete.
“I’ll tell my son he can go look for it someday,” he said. “‘Lonnie was here in 2017,’ and it’s 2038.”
Contact David Patch at dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.
First Published July 20, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
