A tentative date has been set for the blasting of the K-18 overpass bridge at US Highway 77 in Junction City.

Fire Chief Terry Johnson said that will be something closely monitored by local fire officials.

“It’s unusual to bring explosives into a community…so we take it very seriously, and we’re trying to monitor the situation and we’re watching the progress of the preparations to make sure that we’re not going to have anything that’s going to put the community at risk,” said Johnson.

Blasting materials will make their way into the area Friday evening, KDOT and the contracting company Hamm Construction have confirmed that the implosion will occur at 8:00 pm Friday.

“Between 5 and 7 [pm] is actually when [the explosives] will be here..there will be a ten minute window where they will shut down [US Highway] 77, and then they’re going to blast and then open up the detours and then start clearing out the debris,” said Johnson.

The detour for northbound traffic will taking the existing US-77 off ramp for K-18 and then turn east on 8th Street to Rucker Road and travel northwest on Rucker Road to US-77. The southbound traffic on US-77 will turn west on Rucker Road to Spring Valley Road, travel southbound on Spring Valley Rd. to K-18 and then turn east on K-18 to return to southbound on US-77.

Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has provided City officials with a 12 hour time frame to blast the bridge and clear the debris.