“Talking is over ...we’re finally going to get it done,” he said.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the Ohio River bridge corridor project between Ohio and Kentucky received $1.6 billion in funding as part of the $550 billion federal infrastructure law signed by the President in November 2021. The funding will allow the project to be completed without requiring tolls. It is the largest U.S. infrastructure grant ever awarded to a single project.
A companion bridge will be built next to the Brent Spence Bridge, which will continue to carry a regular flow of traffic. The companion bridge will be for express traffic.
Beshear said the project is the beginning of a brighter future for local families and businesses that rely on the bridge for travel.
“The full impact goes to the very health and security of our nation’s economy,” he said, calling the Interstate 75 and Interstate 71 connector essential to the economy.
“This project has been talked about for years — decades really ― and we’re the folks who are actually getting it done,“ Beshear said.
“I want to thank the President for delivering on this historic money request,” he said. He also thanked Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine for being open to the partnership and continuing to “work with our folks to get this done.”
Beshear, a Democrat, touted the bipartisan efforts to accomplish “one of the largest infrastructure projects in U.S. history.”
The bridge was built by Americans who had been through Word War II, Beshear said to further shed light on the bridge’s age.
The Brent Spence, which carries Interstates 71 and 75 between Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, was declared functionally obsolete by the Federal Highway Administration in the 1990s. Three percent of the nation’s GDP is affected by freight travel on the Brent Spence Bridge.
DeWine welcomed President Biden to the area and said although local legislators are ready to put a lot of money into the bridge, the federal dollars are imperative.
“Thank you for that leadership,” DeWine said to Biden. He also thanked Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the U.S. Senate, whom he called his Senate mentor.
“We’re going to tie the communities closer together in downtown Cincinnati” as the project moves forward, DeWine said. “A new bridge is going to have a huge impact on Kentucky and a huge impact on the State of Ohio,” he said. “The timing is right.
“We need to make more things in the United States of America, and Ohio is doing that, Kentucky is doing that, and this bridge is going to facilitate that ... making it more possible to get those products to market,” DeWine said.
He called it the “bridge to the future.”
“Let our new bridge serve as an example of how we can come together as a country ... to just get things done,” he said.
Portman said Wednesday was the “triumph of common sense and persistence over pessimism and partisanship ... that’s what this represents.”
He said things make it easier when you have the money to work with and said the project has been “30 years in the making.”
“The I-71/I-75 junction is the worst bottleneck in the nation,” Portman said. “It’s not just congestion, it’s a safety issue.”
He also said it is an economic issue to have a bridge in such need of expansion.
“We’re finally gonna get it fixed, folks,” Portman said.
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown said “the federal government is finally doing its part to make this crucial part of Ohio and Kentucky safe and reliable.”
Brown said the project will mean more people go to work in construction, and the capability of traveling on the bridge will mean more jobs in general.
“It means taxpayer dollars will support American taxpayer jobs.”
He said the nation’s infrastructure was once the envy of the world, and it is time to get back to that.
McConnell called the bridge project “literally a legislative miracle.” Several senators on both sides of the aisle came together to get the funding for the infrastructure bill and the Ohio River bridge project, McConnell said.
“This is really quite significant.”
Biden’s stop in Covington is part of a nationwide tour by the administration to tout projects connected to the $550 billion infrastructure law.
Biden said bridges are being rebuilt throughout the nation to help move product faster and get people places safer. He also said $127 million will replace the Western Hills viaduct in Cincinnati and millions more will replace various needs throughout Kentucky.
Toward the end of his speech, Biden touted the future of electric vehicles being built in America and said it’s a “simple concept” to buy American.
“I don’t sign anything congress passes unless you’re buying something in America,” he said. “All this is about investing in America’s heartland.”
“It’s about damn time we’re doing it,” Biden said.
The President also spoke about manufacturing jobs and said “Intel is investing $20 billion” by building a semiconductor plant in Licking County, Ohio to expand “what I refer to as the field of dreams.”
“It’s about pride,” Biden said. “Simple pride.
“Pride in our country, pride in what we can do, and what we can do when we do it together.”
BRENT SPENCE BRIDGE
- Opened in 1963
- Designed to carry 80,000 vehicles per day, but currently carries at least double that
- Project to have three components: A new companion bridge that will divert traffic from the Brent Spence Bridge, improvements to the existing bridge and reworking I-71/75 on both sides of the Ohio River.
- The bridge has officially needed a replacement since at least 1998. That’s when the Federal Highway Administration determined it was no longer accommodating traffic needs.
- A groundbreaking for the construction start is expected in 2023 with more heavy construction to begin in 2024.
Source: Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments
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