HUNTINGTON WV/ASHLAND KY roadmeet
Apr. 6-7 2013
PART 4
Here we're looking inside the old OH 75 tunnel in Ironton, Ohio. I don't know what the items inside are for.
Looking northeast from the steps that go up the hill over the tunnel. (This is the stairway where somebody ripped an SBD bunker blast.) The road on the left is the modern OH 93, but the road on the right is of course the old OH 75.
Ironton is a city that gave its all for this roadmeet. OH 93 ends at US 52 and becomes Park Avenue. That's the main street running into town here. US 52 goes over OH 93 or Park Avenue in the foreground. The bridge in the background is the Ironton-Russell Bridge, which runs to Russell, Ky.
A look at the US 52 divided highway running northwest from Ironton. US 52 winks off into the distance on the left; a ramp to OH 93 is in the foreground. Of some interest is the path in the grass running from the parking lot on the right towards US 52. Was that the site of a proposed ramp?
A look down at the old OH 75. It enters the tunnel near the bottom of the photo.
A final look at the tunnel. We're looking southwest on the old OH 75.
Now we're heading down Park Avenue into Ironton. You're gonna love what's coming!
Continuing on Park.
This has to be southeast on 2nd.
Southeast on 2nd. The sign at right that says "MUNICIPAL PARKING LOT" is rusted, so it's old.
A brick section of Vernon Street has a stairway up to the Ironton-Russell Bridge, but the staircase was closed. All pedestrian access to the bridge was closed in 2003 because peregrine falcons kept pooping on people. This leaves pedestrians with no legal way to cross the Ohio River for miles around.
This bridge is endangered. It's the Ironton-Russell Bridge, built in 1922 as the first road span anywhere between Parkersburg, W.Va., and Cincinnati. The bridge is so brittle now that it has to close altogether during subzero weather. It's scheduled to be replaced and demolished. That means destroyed, ruined. Completion of the new span - which will be a modern cable-stayed bridge - is expected in 2015.
The approach to the Ironton-Russell Bridge. It's been said that the 90-degree left turn ahead was built to slow down bridge traffic.
I was wrong when I thought we'd be able to fit the Ironton-Russell Bridge all into this part. There'll be some items on this bridge in part 5 too!
Entering Kentucky, there's another 90-degree curve.
Southwest on Ferry Street (KY 2543) in Russell. Know what's best-all about this? It appears this was once US 23.
Ferry Street essentially forms a tunnel under the railyard. The aging US 23 marker has a case of sine rot. The staircase goes up to Vernon Street (which doesn't line up with Ironton's Vernon Street).
This video shows Ferry Street through the tunnel. Then we go southeast on US 23.
Southeast on US 23. In the background is the viaduct that carries KY 244 (Bellefonte Street) over the rail line. It appears as if the viaduct was once US 23. Behind that is the construction for the Ironton-Russell Bridge replacement.
US 23 at KY 244.
The KY 244 viaduct - which, like I said, was apparently once US 23. The Ironton-Russell Bridge again appears in the background.