Milton-Madison Bridge

The 740m-long truss is longest in North America to have been slid laterally into place. The bridge’s main contractor, Walsh Construction, brought in heavy lifting specialist VSL for the operation.

Polished steel sliding plates were secured on top of the refurbished piers. Steel cables and eight computer-controlled hydraulic jacks were used to pull the bridge through a series of grabs and pulls until the bridge was slid into place.

The slide began on Wednesday morning, but was halted in the late afternoon due to high winds over the Ohio River. Materials were connected from the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges project to help deal with the windy conditions and assist in synchronising the slide onto the bridge’s five piers. This allowed the slide to resume on Thursday morning for completion the same day.