Like A Trouble Over Water, Bridge

The Brent Spence Bridge replacement project has always been a political landmine around here, former GOP Gov. Matt Bevin lost reelection because his plan was to charge tolls in Northern Kentucky to get to work in Cincinnati, which cost him just enough support in NKY counties in 2019 to lose. 

After decades of being blocked by Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, making a new span alongside the JFK Camelot-era bridge is finally getting off the ground thanks to the Biden Infrastructure bill and Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

 

The Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky could finally be getting its companion bridge – and it won't require new tolls.

At a news conference Monday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced plans to apply for two federal grants totaling up to $2 billion to fund a new bridge to carry Interstates 71 and 75 over the Ohio River.

"I want to be able to break ground next year,'' said Beshear, a Democrat, during the news conference.

The application for funding is expected to be submitted within the next few months and a final decision on the funding could happen in the fall of 2023, officials said.

The total cost of the new bridge would be about $2.8 billion, according to DeWine, a Republican. Kentucky and Ohio will contribute whatever funds aren't covered by the federal government.

Both states will apply for the grants together once the U.S. Department of Transportation releases guidance on the application process. Governors DeWine and Beshear said it's unclear exactly when that may be.

Transportation officials estimated construction of the companion bridge and improvements to the Brent Spence would take about five years to complete.

Beshear and DeWine said the new bridge would be built without tolls.

In the 1990s, the Federal Highway Administration declared the Brent Spence functionally obsolete because its narrow lanes carried more cars than it was designed for – with no emergency lane.

The Brent Spence was built in 1963 to handle 80,000 vehicles a day, but is now used by double that number.

Improvements to the existing bridge and building a new companion bridge would add much-needed capacity by separating local and through traffic to ease the ongoing traffic backups and accidents.

 

Now there's still quite a bit that could go wrong here, but it's the Brent Spence Bridge that put Andy Beshear in office, and getting ground broken on that project before election day next year will be the only shot he has of winning a second term. 

 

Considering the bridge was out of commission for six weeks in November and December 2020 after a major truck accident, getting it replaced has suddenly become a major local priority for Democrats and Republicans considering how much damage was done to NKY's economy.

 

Mike DeWine gets to avoid being the bad guy here, too. He gets to look like the sensible, bipartisan type (despite being a screaming right-wing nutjob) and he gets to put something on the board other than the state's massively corrupt GOP state legislature.

 

But I'm guessing, cynically, that McConnell will take credit for the eventualy groundbreaking for the bridge in 2024, when Kentucky almost certainly has a new Republican governor.