Possible Louisville bridges meet: Saturday, June 7

[hbelkins]

As of now, I am scheduled to be in Louisville for a business conference Wednesday through Friday, June 4-6. This would lend itself very nicely to a meet in the Louisville area on Saturday, June 7.

The biggest problem is that I will likely not have an opportunity to scout for the meet. I am supposed to be in Louisville one day next week for a meeting, but won't have time to scout. And at this time, circumstances will likely not permit me to make one or more discretionary trips to Louisville to scout for the meet tour stops. Scouting the evenings of the 4th, 5th and 6th would not give me enough time to come up with and publish an itinerary (and get copies made to distribute unless I want to hit a Kinko's somewhere).

So, I'm wondering if any of our Louisville-area members would be willing to help arrange a meet and help scout a tour. At a minimum, we'd want to see both bridge construction sites from both sides of the river. Not sure if there's anything else that's going on in the area that would be worth seeing. We could always get in a clinch of existing I-264 and Indiana I-265 if necessary.

Lunch would most likely be at Buckhead Mountain Grill on the Indiana side of the river. I've eaten at that particular location before and there's a decent view of the river and the Louisville skyline.

Thoughts?

[Brandon]

Sounds like a fun idea.  It's about the same distance as Cincy for me, so count me in.

[codyg1985]

I would be up for this.

[hbelkins]

I posted a link to this thread in the Louisville bridges thread that's been going on for awhile. If some of the participants in that thread who live in the area can help with scouting, it would make this meet imminently do-able.

So as it is, this is very, very tentative.

[jpi]

This is very doable for me too, easy 3 hour drive from middle TN :-) and no toy shows for me that weekend.

[tidecat]

FYI The Color Run is being held in Downtown Louisville on June 7 - probably will result in some few street closures around Waterfront Park that morning.  Last year the Start and Finish lines were between Slugger Field and the Great Lawn.

[Duke87]

OK, this is significantly easier for me to pull off than Nashville. Looks like I may be ditching that idea in favor of this.

[hbelkins]

^^^

This is definitely not set in stone, so please don't plan on this as a definite meet and cancel any plans for this.

[Alps]

OK, this is significantly easier for me to pull off than Nashville. Looks like I may be ditching that idea in favor of this.

No. Go to Nashville.

[JMoses24]

The I-65 bridge is not far at all from the Buckhead in Jeffersonville. Literally, five minutes walk or drive down the street and you're there. So that, in theory, takes care of the view from Indiana on that bridge. However, US 31 is scheduled to close sometime in May south of Court Avenue, INCLUDING the Clark Memorial Bridge.

On the Kentucky side, the Big Four Bridge to the east should offer a pretty solid view.

The East End Bridge will by far be the tougher viewing and efforts should focus there.

[hbelkins]

However, US 31 is scheduled to close sometime in May south of Court Avenue, INCLUDING the Clark Memorial Bridge.

Well, THAT will screw up traffic in Louisville, probably worse than the Sherman Minton closure did.

[A.J. Bertin]

I would definitely be interested as long as finances work out and my significant other doesn't mind me being gone for yet another weekend at a road meet. I've wanted to attend a road meet in Louisville for quite some time.

[Laura]

I'd like to attend this. Can't say for certain at this point, but there's definitely interest on my end.

[kharvey10]

Its only 4 hour drive from me but I will be changing employers as of March 31 and my sister-in-law is due to give birth to twins in that time frame.

[NWI_Irish96]

OK, since a lot of people seem to be interested in this, I will volunteer to "host".  I've never even been to a road meet before, let alone organized one, so I may need some help. 

[hbelkins]

OK, since a lot of people seem to be interested in this, I will volunteer to "host".  I've never even been to a road meet before, let alone organized one, so I may need some help.

Excellent!

There's a great thread here on what to do.

I will do all the work such as publicity, setting up a meet page and a Facebook page, etc., and I already have a spot for the meal planned out, so I'll contact them with a head count.

What I need help with is scouting. I doubt I'll have the opportunity to get to Louisville prior to June to find spots to stop on the tour, so basically we need someone to select spots to stop to view construction, where we can park the cars in the motorcade and can take photos without getting all muddy, trespassing, etc.

At a minimum we'll want to see construction activity on both sides of the river for both bridges, meaning four stops. Then we'll need a route to tie the stops together. And then we need to decide if there's anything else worthy of viewing. Possible suggestions are the old K&I Bridge (used to carry US 31W and US 460 on either side of a railroad bridge), or maybe a clinch of I-264 or Indiana I-265 if anyone's interested. Other than the three-year-old new SPUI at I-264 and KY 1447, nothing stands out to me.

It was mentioned that there is some sort of race that may have some downtown streets blocked, but with luck it will be over by the time we're there. If lunch is at noon on the Indiana side and we see both Indiana bridge ends, we're realistically looking at 3:30-4 p.m. to get to a stop in downtown Louisville.

And... (and this is a big and...)

It's not set in stone that I will be in Louisville the latter part of that week in June. It's entirely possible that I won't be attending the conference that's scheduled for then. I won't know that until probably sometime in May, when the conference agenda is finalized. I have a feeling that by June, discretionary travel will be very unlikely to nonexistent for me (unless I win a lottery or something). This is why I suggested help with scouting since from a practical standpoint, I won't be able to take a trip or two to Louisville for the sole purposes of scouting for the meet. (Unless I win the aforementioned lottery or gas goes down to 50 cents a gallon).

[NWI_Irish96]

I work about a mile from the Indiana side of downtown bridge construction, and live about 5 miles from the Indiana side of East end bridge construction, so having stops on the Indiana side scouted out will be no problem.  I should have time to check out the Kentucky side, probably the weekend before. 

I guess I'd need to know how many people we are expecting.  A logical route would be to start at the Indiana East end, move to the Indiana downtown, have lunch, go to the Kentucky downtown, and then end up at the Kentucky East end.

I have a van that seats 6 adults comfortably which could help reduce the vehicle count in the caravan.

[JMoses24]

OK, since a lot of people seem to be interested in this, I will volunteer to "host".  I've never even been to a road meet before, let alone organized one, so I may need some help. 

I pulled it off for the Cincinnati meet without ever going to one. It wasn't without a complication or two, but I got it done.

[hbelkins]

The issue with starting a meet tour at a construction site is parking for everyone who doesn't drive, and having to come back to the site if it's not centrally located.

Also, wonder how Kingfish in Jeffersonville would work as a lunch location? It's not a chain like Buckhead (it's locally-owned). I've never eaten there, but have heard good things about it from relatives in the area.

[thefro]

The view's great from Kingfish but I haven't eaten at the Jeffersonville location in about 15 years.  I remember it being really good back then.  I got lunch from one of their locations elsewhere in Louisville a couple times when I worked down there a few years back and it was just "okay" then.

For good views of the downtown bridge, your choices besides Kingfish would be  Buckhead, and Rocky's (Italian/Pizza/Subs) (heard good things about Rocky's but haven't eaten there) on the Indiana side.  There's a Joe's Crab Shack on the Kentucky side that has good views as well.

[NWI_Irish96]

The issue with starting a meet tour at a construction site is parking for everyone who doesn't drive, and having to come back to the site if it's not centrally located.

Also, wonder how Kingfish in Jeffersonville would work as a lunch location? It's not a chain like Buckhead (it's locally-owned). I've never eaten there, but have heard good things about it from relatives in the area.

I'm not a seafood person so I'd much prefer Buckhead or Rocky's over Kingfish.  There's also a local chain called Clucker's which is a bit farther east and would not have the existing (Kennedy) bridge blocking the view of the new one.

[getemngo]

I'll likely go if A.J. does (and if it happens).

[A.J. Bertin]

I'll likely go if A.J. does (and if it happens).

If this meet happens, I'd put myself down as having about a 90% chance of attending.

[hbelkins]

Update on this ... at this point, I'm not sure that I will be in Louisville for the days prior to the meet. The conference agenda is now out and none of it looks truly appealing enough for me to attend and have to front the lodging costs and get paid back whenever.

Meets have been thrown together on shorter notice, but don't expect any final word from me until around the first of May.

[jpi]

Eitherway this would be an easy meet for me to attend since it is only 3 hours north of me.