MAYSVILLE, Ky. — The Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge in Maysville will close next week, and it won't re-open again for a year, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
KYTC said the bridge will close on Monday, June 1; it was previously scheduled to close earlier in May.
After June 1, KYTC says the bridge will be fully closed 24/7 until the summer of 2027. There will be no thru traffic allowed, including pedestrians, KYTC said.
Crews are set to replace all 136 suspender cables of the bridge and complete concrete repatching repairs, among other work.
WATCH: How residents are responding to the upcoming closure
With the Simon Kenton Memorial Bridge closed, drivers will have to detour three miles west to the William H. Harsha Bridge, which carries US-68. Drivers can also use US-52 and KY-8 as possible detours, KYTC said.
The bridge has connected Maysville to Ohio for more than 90 years.
Ethel Vaughn, a Maysville resident, said the closure won't be too disruptive for her personally, but she's glad the repairs are happening.
"I don't think it's really that bad because I'm really close to the other bridge that you can cross back and forth from Ohio to Kentucky, so that's not so bad, but I'm really glad that they're repairing, doing the repairs because it really needed it," Vaugn said.
Fellow Maysville resident Mark Comer echoed that sentiment on Friday.
"It's not gonna be really inconvenient," Comer said. "We've got a bridge, what, two to three miles down the road."
But not everyone is taking the closure in stride. Chelsea Akers, the owner of Pandemonium Restaurant & Bar, said she's worried the detour will keep Ohio customers from crossing the river to visit her business.
"People are not crazy about traveling on Route 8," Akers said. "It takes away a lot of the convenience, and so it just concerns me about the flow of traffic and my customers being able to come over here."
Akers said she's trying to find a silver lining in the project.
"I guess that's the only positive is that they're taking the steps to fix it so that it can last longer and that we don't ever lose like complete access to it," Akers acknowledged. "I guess unfortunately we just have to deal with, you know, the next year it being closed."
The roughly 15-month closure allows crews to work on the $22.6 million project to upgrade the 1930s-era bridge.
