CINCINNATI — If you’re one of the thousands of drivers anxiously waiting to use the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge once again on your daily commute between Cincinnati and Kentucky, sit tight. Crews are one step closer to having the bridge back open.

The next step—pouring concrete on the deck—is right around the corner.

What You Need To Know

  • Crews have prepared heated enclosures to maintain the temperature when pouring the concrete on the deck of the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge

  • Six heaters will be used to keep the concrete at the right temperature

  • Fencing, pavement and installing signage will mark the finishing touches

  • ODOT remains optimistic that the bridge will be ready by early March

“Typically we try to schedule deck pours in the summer time or the fall or even the spring, so this is an atypical time to perform a deck pour,” Great Lakes Construction Co. Project Manager Tom Hackett said.

The important bridge connects northern Kentucky to downtown Cincinnati, but the southbound lanes have been closed since a Nov. 1 fire around a playground under the bridge warped the steel girders. 

Hackett said, usually, it needs to be a lot warmer for concrete to cure, but they have a plan.

“Right now we have heated enclosures built so we can maintain a temperature after we pour the concrete between 50 and 100 degrees despite what the weather around us is doing,” he said.

Six really strong heaters will help get the process rolling.  

“The typical heater at your house is 100,000 BTUs," he said. "So I think right now I think we’re at 2.3 million BTUs."

Keeping the concrete at the right temperature is a crucial part of the process.

“It won’t get to the strength that’s needed and will start to delaminate and peel away over time,” Hackett said.

At this point, all seems ready to go, and crews even have back-up heaters just in case.

“We also have temperature sensors around the pour as well that send remote lead-ins to an app that we have,” Hackett said.

“They’re still doing some work, they’re installing rebar, they’re getting the rest of the framework put in,” ODOT Public Information Officer Kathleen Fuller said.

The concrete will be 11 inches thick.  

“Then we have a second concrete pour so those are kind of like part one, part two of the next major milestone," Fuller said. "Then we get into the home stretch."

Fencing, pavement and signage will mark the finishing touches.

“We’ll know a little bit more after the concrete is poured what that timeline is going to look like, but we’re still telling everybody early March,” Fuller said.

Spectrum News 1 reporter Sam Knef contributed to this article.

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