Repairs on the closed Sherman Minton Bridge are halfway complete, and officials say the job is running slightly ahead of schedule.Crews are working 12 hours a day, seven days a week to fasten more steel to reinforce the bridge. The heavily traveled span along Interstate 64 was closed Sept. 9 after a crack was found in a steel support beam.Greg Prince with the Indiana Department of Transportation says crews are currently reinforcing the exterior portion of the bridge’s load-bearing beams."Once that’s complete, then their attention will move into the inside of those tie girders, where the work is a little more complex due to the lateral bracing that’s underneath the bridge," he said.The contractor for the project says workers won't meet a Jan. 27 deadline to secure a $1 million incentive offered by the Horseshoe Foundation.The job is officially scheduled for completion on March 2.(Information for this story also came from the Associated Press; file photo by Erica Peterson)
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.