HAZARD – A second bridge project in Hazard should begin in the coming months as two bids were received to replace the Woodland Park bridge beside East Main Street.

H.B. Elkins, information officer with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s highway department office in Jackson, said bidding opened for the Woodland Park project on May 22, and two bids were received that came in well below the estimated $4 million cost of the project.

“We did have two very good bids on that, so I expect that to be awarded shortly,” he said.

Elkins said the low bid came in at just over $2.6 million, and while the contract hasn’t been awarded, he does expect it to be awarded in the next two to three weeks.

Once the contract is awarded, crews will have a month to begin work, and will have 220 working days to complete the project.

By the project’s end, motorists entering and exiting Woodland Park will be able to use a two-lane bridge, whereas the current structure has room enough to accommodate only one lane at a time.

Officials with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet attempted to give away the old structure, a Pratt through truss bridge, a type which isn’t built very often in modern bridge construction. The Cabinet offered to cover expenses for marking, removing, and transporting the bridge to a new site, but apparently there were no takers for the 360-foot structure.

In another bridge project for Hazard, crews have been working to complete the new Home Lumber Bridge on the lower end of Main Street for several months, which should be complete by November.