Paint and Coatings Industry News

Main News Page

$10M Bridge Painting Project Awarded

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Blue Bridge will bring $10,070,000 in green to an Ohio painting contractor, under a newly awarded cleaning and coating contract.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has awarded the Glover Cary Bridge project to Spartan Contracting of Campbell, OH.

The bridge, also known as The Blue Bridge, is a 4,622.8-foot-long continuous-truss bridge that connects Owensboro, KY, and Spencer County, IN, over the Ohio River.

Scope of Work

The project involves cleaning and recoating structural steel surfaces on spans 27-30 of the bridge.

topix.com

The spans will be repainted in time for the bicentennial of its Owensboro, KY, terminus.

The steel will be abrasive blast-cleaned to a Near-White finish (SSPC-SP 10) and coated with either a three-coat, epoxy-based, organic zinc-rich system (Class I, Type I or II), or with a three-coat, urethane-based, organic zinc-rich system (Class II, Type I or II).

The existing coatings may contain lead; Class 2A containment according to SSPC-Guide 6 will be required. The contractor is responsible for performing quality control coatings inspection services as well as an SSPC C-3 competent person to oversee waste handling.

The KYTC conducted a mandatory pre-bid meeting Feb. 7 for the project. 

Bridge History

The bridge opened to traffic in September 1940 as a toll bridge, with construction funded through a $1.03 million federal grant as part of The New Deal. The bridge is named for U.S. Rep. Glover Cary, a Kentucky Republican who served in Congress in the 1930s.

Tolls were discontinued in 1954.

The original silver bridge was repainted blue in the early 1970s. The bridge was scheduled to be repainted in 2017, which is Owensboro's bicentennial. At the urging of state Rep. Tommy Thompson and other leaders, the plan was fast-tracked to fiscal year 2013, and $8.5 million for Kentucky’s share of the project was provided in the 2012-2018 Kentucky Highway Plan.

Reported by Paint BidTracker, a construction reporting service devoted to identifying contracting opportunities for the coatings community.

Comment from Tom Schwerdt, (3/13/2013, 8:46 AM)

Interesting, abrasive blasting leaded paint over a river, yet only Class 2A containment.

Comment from Chuck Pease, (3/13/2013, 11:26 AM)

Ya thats what I was thinking also. Although the sentence did read "may" contain lead. No good faith survey done???

Comment from Gerald Burbank, (3/13/2013, 11:30 AM)

It was painted with inorganic zinc and vinyl in 1987

Comment from Tom Schwerdt, (3/14/2013, 8:20 AM)

Hm, zinc in that era likely was still leaded - perhaps 1% or so. And we don't have a good feel for how many "misses" happened with the blasting in 1987. Thanks for the additional info, Gerald!