The current version of the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project is dead. It’s too expensive.
President Trump and Transportation Secretary Chao have been clear that a huge river of money won’t flow from Washington. The Kentucky General Assembly won’t authorize tolls. There is not enough money.
Recent assertions of “majority support” for tolls, pushed by the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, is just another chapter in a failed public relations and lobbying campaign. Northern Kentucky does not support tolls on the Brent Spence Bridge.
The project needs to be right-sized and more affordable. At this point, the defenders of the current project are responsible for any delay in addressing the issues on the corridor. A smaller, more focused project should be faster, cheaper, and can work for all of us, not just some of us.
Mayor Joseph Meyer
As the Mayor of Northern Kentucky’s largest city, I have an obligation to represent Covington and look out for our well-being. The current project for the Brent Spence Bridge, including the possibility of tolling, just does not work for us.
Here’s why:
1. The current disruption caused by the maintenance of the existing bridge provides a small taste of what we will suffer through during the years of construction and the massive reconfiguration of the Interstate required to make the current project work. A right-sized solution, tying into existing approaches, should cause far less pain.
2. The size and scope of the project is disproportionate to the scale of the City of Covington. While cities across the nation are downsizing their urban interstates, the current design more than quadruples the footprint of the bridge where it lands in Covington and further isolates several historic neighborhoods.
3. Permanent limited access to the river cities, complicating entry to and exit from Covington, Ludlow, and Bromley, will cause lasting damage to our businesses. The economic benefits to Covington and Northern Kentucky are unclear and theoretical at best.
4. The Covington City Commission, and almost all of Northern Kentucky’s elected officials, remain adamantly opposed to tolls as a means for financing the corridor project. Tolling will cause diversion through the City of Covington and many other cities, stressing our infrastructure and historic neighborhoods, while burdening residents and businesses.
5. Tolls will place Covington and Northern Kentucky at an economic disadvantage relative to the Ohio side. Why would a person choose to live in Kentucky if they have to pay a thousand dollars a year tax to get to their job? Why would a business located in Covington or Northern Kentucky stay here if they have to pay a $10 toll per truck to cross the bridge to service their customers? Tolls divide the region into winners and losers. They separate us; they don’t unite us.
6. The Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project will not effectively address traffic congestion issues on the Kentucky side without the additional investment of billions of dollars. Moving evening backups from the bridge to Kyles Lane, or I-275, is not an acceptable solution.
These are real issues and they deserve to be addressed. We are being asked to pay for a project that will cause massive harm to Northern Kentucky.
The Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project was conceived more than 20 years ago, and the current plans have languished for more than ten years. The plan was developed when mega-projects were trendy, and the assumption was that the federal government would foot the bill.
That plan is not the only approach to mitigating our congestion and safety issues. Return to the drawing board; right-size the project. Covington has proposed and supports several simple steps to ease congestion issues while we come up with a reasonable solution.
The concerns of our small businesses and Kentucky cities need to be heard and addressed. Covington and Northern Kentucky won’t bear disproportionate costs for an outdated project with unclear benefits, obvious costs, and an intolerable financing plan.
Joseph Meyer is Mayor of Covington.
I agree 100% with this analysis.
The bridge project proposal was vastly over burdened with additional expenses on the Cincinnati side of the river and the costs of extensive modifications to the I71 corridor just to service the tolling operation. Design compromises involving keeping the existing bridge and rolling both spans separately required the elimination of NKYs down town interstate access.
NKY bore the brunt of the negative impact from the tolling proposal.
“Why would a person choose to live in Kentucky if they have to pay a thousand dollars a year tax to get to their job?”
Exactly! If someone wants to avoid the bridge, they can live and work on the same side of the river. If someone wants to live on one side of the river and work on the other, they should pay the cost of the infrastructure that supports their lifestyle choice. Why should their commute be subsidized with my tax dollars? Toll the bridge and make the people that use it pay for it.
Travis I respect your opinion. Here’s mine. The fed gasoline tax is suppose to pay for all federal interstate highways including upkeep. If the government wants to change the funding to tolls – fine, but lets be fair and put a toll on every bridge within the federal interstate highway not just this current bridge. Single out of this one bridge and setting up funding via tolls is a bit unfair. Tolls, by nature, will result in additional infrastructure needs also and additional beuaracracy……..
Travis, the problem is that KYTC estimates that nearly 50% percent of the traffic on the bridge would divert due to a $2 toll. That is similar to what is diverting today with the current bridge construction. It affects a lot more than just the driver crossing the bridge. With tolls, there would be no need for a new bridge.
Solution-Cincy Eastern By Pass. The Eastern By Pass plan also includes improvements to the Brent Spence corridor . This plan deserves serious consideration.
The “Eastern Bypass” (a.k.a. Fischer Homes Expressway) is nothing more than an absurd attempt by Henry Fischer to get taxpayers to build a new highway so he can acquire cheap farm land along the route to build new subdivisions. It is not a realistic proposal, it would cost far more than $1.1 billion (the amount that its proponents claim), and it is not a viable “bypass” for the vast majority of traffic currently using the Brent Spence Bridge.
@Greg – Usually, when a previously free route becomes tolled, people will avoid it at first and find alternate routes. After a few weeks, they realize that their time is too valuable, and it’s worth it to pay the $2 toll instead of taking the free route that’s 15 minutes out of their way.
I would love for local leaders to talk to Elon Musk regarding his tunnel innovations. He says that he has the technology to dig a tunnel 90% cheaper than what is being done today. This could theoretically allow for an underground bypass within the I-75 corridor from Northern Kentucky to north of Downtown Cincinnati. No new bridges would need to be built, and we could keep our current entrances and exit ramps.
It seems that this possibility could be studied along with other alternatives.
While voicing grievances is important to protect his community’s interests, as an elected leader of his community, it’d be nice if the honorable mayor would offer his proposed solutions rather than a simple list of grievances.
Travis, it is a viable bypass for 30% of the axles crossing the bridge. The Clermont County Engineer confirmed the Bypass would be less than $2B. The current plan is to spend more than double to add only one lane of capacity on I75. Louisville is still well under their projection because of diversion. The study from KYTC showing 50% diversion happened under a pro toll administration.