Crews poured the new concrete deck for the Murdock Bridge on Monday, Dec. 20. The bridge was originally expected to reopen to traffic in early March 2005. However, reconstruction of the adjacent water line that failed on Nov. 1 will delay the reopening of the bridge.
The new water line will be enclosed beneath the bridge, and will require replacing the pavement and sidewalk at the east end of the bridge after the new pipe is installed. Extending the water line beneath the bridge will also require leaving the river lowered for another several months, but it is expected to be back to normal level for the River Festival in May.
Due to the specialized nature of the components needed to install this water line within the bridge structure, materials will not be available until early 2005 (February through April). Patching and resurfacing of the sidewalks are the next step of the bridge project itself, but they require temperatures above freezing. If weather conditions do not allow for this work to be done between Christmas and the time that water line work can begin, there will be a period when no visible work is being done.
The current anticipated bridge reopening date is mid-May, 2005, but weather conditions and progress on the water line project could postpone that date further.
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