The Highway 82 overpass at Old West Point Road will remain closed until later this year, as the bridge awaits repairs from being struck twice in the past four months.
Plans to repair the Highway 82 overpass at Old West Point Road will be underway in April, said MDOT District 1 Engineer Matt Dunn, though the overpass won’t be open to traffic until work is completed in mid-fall.
The Old West Point Road overpass has been awaiting repairs since October after being struck by an 18-wheeler hauling an excavator. The bridge was struck in the same spot during a hit-and-run Sunday evening.
The incident in October caused significant damage to three beams on the eastbound side of the overpass. Dunn said the beams suffered severe cracking and could not safely carry traffic across the overpass, leading to its indefinite closure while awaiting repairs. Structural engineers determined that while severe, the cracking was not “catastrophic” and were confident the bridge would not collapse if repairs were delayed.
Sunday’s hit-and-run left exposed strands of rebar hanging into the right lanes and knocked out chunks of concrete and planks of wood which were used to temporarily patch up previous damage, Dunn said. MDOT crews arrived at the scene to perform temporary repairs to the overpass to ensure safety for drivers traveling east and west on Hwy 82.
The strike the bridge suffered earlier this week, Dunn said, did not significantly worsen the damage from last year’s incident.
“Our structural engineers reassessed the bridge and thankfully, it wasn’t serious enough to cause us any concern that the bridge is gonna fall,” Dunn told The Dispatch.
Replacing the three beams that were damaged in October requires a total deconstruction of the eastbound side of the overpass. Ordering and securing the beams, Dunn said, will take several months.
“The current plan is to repair the entire span across eastbound lanes,” Dunn said.
Dunn said MDOT “did not feel it critical” to prioritize the repairs over other surrounding projects, due to minimal traffic crossing the overpass.
Repairing the bridge has been delayed while MDOT completes a project along Highway 50 to replace a culvert beneath the highway. Upon completion of this project in March, MDOT will begin making plans on how to repair the overpass, Dunn said.
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