At 1 p.m., KYTC tweeted that it would be “about an hour” when law enforcement began the phased reopening of the eight-mile stretch of Interstate 71/75 leading north toward the bridge.
“Road crews are getting everything in place on the bridge and the streets that feed onto it as we prepare to restore the connection between Covington and Cincinnati,” Kentucky governor Andy Beshear said. “The reopening of the Brent Spence Bridge is a welcome Christmas gift to everyone this season.”
Gray said construction crews will be painting the stripes for traffic lanes around noon. Once the lanes are painted, crews will then start to reopen the bridge in phases, but Gray said the bridge could be open between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
“This is not going to be a NASCAR mad dash,” KYTC chief district engineer Bob Yeager said. “We had over eight miles of barricades and barrels on Interstate 71/75. Those all have to be removed...”
Yeager said crews removed five miles of barricades between the bridge and Interstate 275 early Tuesday morning. There are still at least three miles of barricades left to cleanup south of Interstate 275 though.
On Monday afternoon, the final inspections on the bridge were completed, and inspectors confirmed that the bridge is safe for travel and for final repair work to begin.
The bridge has been closed since a fiery semitrailer crash on Nov. 11 damaged the lower and upper deck of the bridge. Since then, Kenton County Judge Executive Kris Knochelmann declared a state of emergency in order to repair the bridge quickly.
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