Jun 19 2007
Michael Baker Jr., Inc., an engineering unit of Michael Baker Corporation (Amex: BKR), has been selected by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to conduct a bridge type study for two new bridges over Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley on U.S. Route 68 in Marshall and Trigg Counties in western Kentucky. This study, valued at $2.9 million, will take approximately one year to complete and represents the first phase of a multi-year project.
Included in the bridge type study will be the use of a public involvement process (developing bridge types representing public preferences), as well as surveying and the development of the alignment for the bridges. The two new crossings are each about one mile in length and eight miles apart from each other. They are separated by the Land Between the Lakes, a 170,000-acre national recreation area in western Kentucky and Tennessee. They are the only crossings of the lakes in Kentucky, and serve as the evacuation link for western Kentucky during a seismic episode. When completed, these bridges will carry four traffic lanes and a pedestrian/bike way. They include a minimum 500-foot clear span for barge navigation. They will be the gateway to the Land Between the Lakes from both the east and west.
Baker will be assisted under subcontract by Palmer Engineering Company, Inc., and a number of minority and other businesses for various tasks. "Baker is extremely pleased and excited about this opportunity to continue to provide large bridge engineering services to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on these high profile structures," James B. Williams, Baker vice president and project manager, said. "It is especially satisfying since it speaks favorably about our performance on the Ohio River Bridges project in Louisville that we were selected for in 2004."