As the reconstruction of US-460--stretching from Kentucky to Virginia--continues, massive amounts of waste material from the various construction sites are carried across the John Moore Branch Bridge and then deposited in a hollow on the south side of the Russell Fork River in Pike County, Kentucky. Because of the need to transport this volume of excavated material, a special design load was required for this bridge to carry trucks weighing up 355,000 lbs.

This project demanded unique considerations for the design of this 5-span, 765 ft. long steel bridge as compared to a regular highway bridge. Choices made for load factors, impact factors, the use of distribution factors versus a finite element system analysis, LL deflection criteria, overload provisions, and fatigue considerations were discussed.