Major road construction!

Saturday
Roger and I went biking on our tandem this morning on the Little Miami trail. We set off from South Lebanon and headed north, through the village of Morrow and then under this tremendous bridge, the Jeremiah Morrow bridge, which carries the I-71, a major north-south artery over the valley. The bridge opened for traffic in 1965, running a length of 2,224 feet (about half a mile)  240 feet over the Little Miami River, and is the highest bridge in Ohio. If you look carefully, however, you will see they are constructing new concrete piers in between the two spans. This is the first stage in a 5-year, $88 million dollar replacement project. Although quite different in appearance, being much higher, the bridge is apparently the same basic design as the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed in August 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The plan is to build the new span in between the two existing ones. Once that is complete, northbound traffic will be switched to the new bridge and the old north bridge will be torn down. In the final phases, a second new structure will be built and the old south bridge will be demolished. The plans also call for maintaining canoe traffic on the river during the recreation season, as well as keeping open the bike path which runs alongside the river. The new bridge will be supported by a series of concrete piers, a design chosen because it is more economical than a steel-truss bridge. Steel is more expensive and requires more maintenance; concrete segmental bridges have a longer life span of 75 years and with proper upkeep can reach 100 years. We did a return trip of 28 miles - I'd been aiming for 30, but after 14 on the outward leg, I decided that was probably enough, and by the time we got back to the car, my backside certainly agreed!
This evening we went out to the Bastille Day celebrations in downtown Montgomery - we are twinned with Neuilly la Plaisance in France, so we celebrate Bastille Day, on the closest weekend, with food booths and entertainment. It was a lovely warm evening to be out - and although the skies were rather grey, the rain held off. Besides the food, the drink and the music, we also bumped into several people we knew, so it was a great evening out!

One year ago: Evening stroll along the Ohio