By Emily Hagedorn
Enquirer contributor

NEWPORT - How could 800 feet frustrate thousands of drivers?

By closing it to traffic.

An 800-foot section of 10th Street/Memorial Parkway in Newport will be closed for three to six months for construction on the 10th Street Bridge.

From Monroe Street to Vine Street, the heavily traveled road - 12,000 cars daily - will be blocked starting near the end of January.

The 73-year-old bridge will be raised 3 feet to allow taller trains to pass underneath, said Rob Hans, district bridge engineer for the transportation cabinet.

Detour signs will be posted on the roadway and by Interstate 471 Exit 4, which is a quarter-mile to the east of the construction, said Phil Ciafardini, Newport city manager. Traffic will be diverted onto Grand Avenue and Carothers Road.

Travel to Newport on the Levee shouldn't be affected, Hans said.

Those involved in the $3.9 million project had hoped the job could be done without closing traffic, but after a "supercar" - an oversized rail car - hit the front of the bridge in April because it was too tall to fit under it, the damage was too extensive to keep the bridge open, Hans said.

After the crash, one lane on the three-lane bridge was closed. It is safe to drive on, though, Hans said.

Some residents and businesses on 10th Street are wary about the construction.

"It's not a happy occurrence around here," said Peter Coughlin, whose law office is on the street. "The raising of the footprint of the street and bridge is just going to make the traffic more hazardous right in front of my door."

"There will be the clanking and banging and all the different sorts of construction noise for the next three to six months," Hans said. But the noise should be limited to daytime hours and seismographs will be used to assure that vibrations don't damage surrounding buildings, he said.

Another concern is the roadway's incline once the bridge is built.

"The grades will be very similar to what they are now," Hans said. "The look of the bridge shouldn't change drastically."