Milton-Madison Bridge Earns Title of Longest Slide
The tension was high in Milton, Ky., and Madison, Ind., as crews prepared to slide the new Milton-Madison Bridge's nearly half-mile-long superstructure 55 ft over the Ohio River in one piece. "It'll be good to get this behind us," said Charlie Gannon, project manager for design-build contractor Walsh Construction. Engineered to minimize disruption, the slide became the defining moment of a $104-million project fraught with weather delays, technical difficulties and other challenges.
Believed to be the longest bridge slid laterally in North America and possibly the world, the 2,428-ft-long, four-span steel truss reached its final position on April 10. "It's kind of a 'wow' moment," said Aaron Stover, project manager for Michael Baker Corp., which is acting as construction manager for co-owner Indiana Dept. of Transportation.