Investigation | A crash occurs every 4 days on the Clark Memorial Bridge

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – On March 1, every news camera in Louisville was focused on the Clark Memorial Bridge as a Sysco tractor-trailer with a driver dangling over the Ohio River for nearly an hour.

“She prayed a lot, and I prayed with her,” said Louisville firefighter Bryce Carden, who rescued driver Sydney Thomas.

In the hours after the accident, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said it would review the future of semi-trucks on the bridge.

“At this point, we expect it will still be able to handle commercial truck traffic in downtown Louisville. It’s an important connection, but we’ll definitely look into it,” said James Ballinger, KYTC’s chief state highway engineer.

The bridge was repaired and reopened in April. Engineers said the tractor-trailer only damaged the sidewalk and railing; The bridge’s main structure was not damaged.

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During the accident investigation, it was discovered that the semi-truck did not cause the accident, but rather swerved to avoid an accident. Taking that into account in part – but even more so after crunching the numbers on semi-truck traffic and accidents – KYTC told WHAS11 that trucks weighing up to 40 tons will continue to be allowed on the bridge.

“We don’t really look at the problems on the bridge as a truck problem,” said Matt Bullock, KYTC District 5 engineer.

Bullock said there were 86 accidents on the bridge between March 13, 2023 and March 26, 2024. Five of those involved semi-trucks, representing 6% of state data and 8% of LMPD crash reports that FOCUS reviewed.

Bullock said 11% of the 24,000 vehicles that cross the bridge daily are semi-trucks.

But there are certainly other “problems” on the 95-year-old bridge. Compared to the Sherman-Minton Bridge and the I-65 toll bridges in both directions, the 86 accidents were by far the most during this period.

This is even more striking when you consider that the Sherman Minton Bridge has three times the volume of the Clark Memorial Bridge and the Lincoln Toll Bridge, which opened in 2015, has five times the volume.

According to MetroSafe, there were 67 crashes on Sherman Minton and 36 crashes on both directions of the I-65 toll gantries combined during that time.

For Mark McGinley, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Louisville’s Speed ​​School of Engineering, these numbers were no surprise.

“The newer bridges – the wider lanes, the wider spacing, the better sight lines – traffic safety is a higher priority, but all meet minimum standards and criteria,” McGinley said.

The lanes on the Clark Memorial Bridge, also known as the 2nd Street Bridge, are 10.5 feet wide and the bridge has no shoulders or additional space for emergencies. The Federal Highway Administration requires highways like I-64 and I-65 to have 12-foot lanes, but the 2nd Street Bridge is classified as a “major arterial,” which is another name for a major road within a city.

“They reduce the speed on bridges to adapt not to more dangerous conditions, but to more demanding driving conditions,” McGinley said.

The American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials Green Book is a document that dictates lane sizes on the 2nd Street Bridge. It says:

“Lane widths on through lanes can vary between 10 and 12 feet. Lane widths of 10 feet may be used in narrower areas where truck and bus volumes are relatively light and speeds are less than 35 miles per hour.”

The speed limit on the bridge is 35, although many cars drive faster.

The most common type of accident was a rear-end collision on the approach to Louisville. MetroSafe records showed 113 accidents on the bridge during that time, 72 non-injury accidents, 25 hit-and-run accidents and 16 injury accidents.

In seven of these accidents, FOCUS was able to rule out that they did not happen on the bridge.

FOCUS also found five incidents between March 2023 and 2024 in which a car blocked a bridge girder.

Bullock said KYTC has considered making the bridge one-way north or south during rush hours and also permanently reducing it to one lane in each direction. Neither is currently being considered because there is too much traffic on the bridge to consider reducing lanes.

“Given the amount of vehicles we have there every day, lane reductions are not feasible at this point,” Bullock said. “It’s limited. As it is now, we really can’t do anything better.”

Among other things, a barrier wall between car traffic and pedestrian paths is being considered. A pedestrian was struck and killed while walking on the bridge on March 14.

The barrier wall would prevent vehicles from crossing the bridge while protecting pedestrians. As the accident on March 1st proved, the railing cannot stop a semi-truck.

“I know some people have referred to the railing out there as a ‘guardrail.’ It’s not even close. “These are pedestrian railings, I mean, like a fence,” Bullock said.

The barrier wall could be in line with the bridge’s support beams so as not to shorten the lane width.

Bullock wouldn’t say the bridge is “near the end of its life cycle” or eligible for replacement because it is still “passing” structural testing.

“It’s still in really good condition. The inspections come back clean,” he said.

The bridge is inspected every two years. It was rated “poor” in 2018 and received “mediocre” ratings in 2020 and 2022. It scored a “health index” of 74.8, 70.82 and 71.63 out of 100 in three inspections over the last six years.

McGinley said replacing it with a newer bridge would undoubtedly make it safer, but there are bridges like this in need across the country.

“We have known for decades that we need to innovate and expand to meet demand. We didn’t,” McGinley said.

He also says he trusts state engineers to make the right decisions.

“We have kept these bridges running well beyond their designed lifespan. And I think they do a pretty good job of keeping it under wraps and keeping it going and keeping it functioning,” McGinley said.

Bullock said they will conduct another traffic study on the Clark Memorial Bridge before the end of 2024. They have been waiting for the Sherman Minton Renewal Project to be completed so they can get an accurate count of how many people are using the bridge.