If you missed Tuesday’s pair of concrete bridge girder parades, check back in a couple of days.
And look for even more next week.
The first six — three Tuesday morning, three in the afternoon — made their way down the length of Lincoln under police escort, hauled west by semis from 63rd Street and Cornhusker Highway and then south on 27th Street, to the South Beltway project beyond Saltillo Road.
But the beltway’s builders still need 30 more delivered, and additional trips are planned either Thursday or Friday this week, and then over four more days next week, said Shane Dostal, the city’s senior traffic technician.
The final schedule depends on the weather, he said. The trucks have to travel over dirt for the last quarter-mile, and too much rain can soften the ground. Tuesday morning, for example, one of the semis sunk in the mud and needed a road grader’s help to keep going.
That was the only problem during the moves, Dostal said, and the caravans made it through the city safely.
“Everything went smooth; there were no mishaps, no stops. It went great.â€
The trucks are taking 27th Street through Lincoln because it’s the only way to get to their destination, the beltway’s bridge over the BNSF railroad tracks.
All of the other obvious routes to Saltillo Road — U.S. 77, and 70th and 84th streets — have traffic intersections or roundabouts the 140- to 160-foot loads can’t navigate, he said.
Semis shuttle bridge girders down North 27th Street on Tuesday afternoon on a trip across town. The girders will be used for bridge construction on the South Beltway.