The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said in a release the US-51 bridge connecting Cairo, Illinois, with Kentucky is being closed Friday afternoon because of severe flooding.
The bridge will be closing between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. It will be closed until February 28 and may be closed longer if the region sees more rainfall.
Motorists will be forced to take an 80-mile detour across the bridge in Paducah. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said the bridge sees 4,700 vehicles cross it each day with a more than a quarter of that traffic being trucks.
More than 60 road locations across 12 counties in west Kentucky are blocked and restricted because of floodwaters.
