By Angela Hatton
Cadiz, KY – Contractors for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will begin surveying the locations for the Kentucky and Barkley lake bridges in late summer. Special project coordinator Ted Merryman says a consulting firm will test the geologic make-up of the soil to decide what framework is safest.
"We live in an earthquake zone and, uh, we're, we're going to meet all the, uh, national bridge codes, and we're doing this geotechnical work to try to analyze what would happen in a certain type of earthquake event."
Merryman expects this phase won't be finished until next spring. During the 2010 special session, the Kentucky General Assembly approved full funding for both bridges. The estimated cost for each is 178 million dollars. State officials had set tentative completion for 2017.