Poll:
Do you think the traffic plan with the closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge is going well?
(WHAS11) Amid calls that President Obama add a Louisville stop to his Midwest itinerary, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer will instead discuss the closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge with Mr. Obama during the president's visit to Cincinnati on Thursday.
“I want to take our case directly to the President and I will stress as strongly as possible the need for quick and direct support from the federal government,” Fischer said in a statement. “We are working hard to pursue all possible options and to stress our needs as quickly as possible.”
A spokesman said Fischer also plans to discuss the Ohio River Bridges Project and the need to get it under construction as soon as possible.
The Louisville Metro Council is adding its voice to a call for action on construction of the first phase of the Ohio River Bridges Project, the east end bridge.
"We simply cannot afford any more delays," said Council member Robin Engel (R) at a Tuesday news conference. Engel is chairman of the council's Transportation, Bridges and Infrastructure Committee. He was flanked by a bipartisan coalition of ten other council members and civic leaders calling for River Fields to drop lawsuits against the Ohio River Bridges Project.
"The time for talk, delay and lawsuits is over," said Council member Cheri Bryant Hamilton, co-chair of the committee.
"There is no injunction associated with River Fields' appeal, so there is no obstruction," argued Lee Cory, President of River Fields Board of Trustees. "This is all a smokescreen to make us the scapegoat for their failure to come up with a funding plan and the money."
With the Sherman Minton Bridge closed for a 12th day, the coalition wants elected leaders and the public to call on President Barack Obama to add Louisville to his Midwest itinerary on Thursday and an emergency declaration to jump start construction.
"Take a stand on this issue and demand that the bridges project immediately move forward," Engel said.
The non-binding resolution alleged that River Fields' legal actions serve only to obstruct progress.
"I can tell you that we're not going to drop the lawsuit just because people are pounding their fists demanding that we do so," Cory responded.
The environmental group's suit charges that the bridges project has not followed federal law and protocol to prove that an east end bridge is needed.
"If the new supplemental Environmental Impact Study presents new facts that would support the building of an east end bridge, we would certainly re-evaluate our position," Cory said, "but until the facts change, we are standing by our position."
The two sides are looking at the same Sherman Minton crisis but reaching two very different conclusions.
"I would hope that the chances have increased for building a downtown bridge first," Cory said.
"They are not the majority in this community, and they need to understand it," said Rebecca Jackson, former Jefferson County Judge-Executive and head of Kentuckians for Progress, an east end bridge advocacy group that has targeted River Fields.
For decades, no new Ohio River bridges have been built as the battle has simmered. The Sherman Minton closure has moved the project to the front burner and - with President Obama visiting a Northern Kentucky bridge on Thursday - the debate is at a full boil.
"Mr. president. we are a community in crisis," Jackson said.
"Bring a shovel or we'll lend him one," said Humana co-founder David Jones.
"And if he puts a spade in the ground all that is holding it up will disappear," Jones added, saying that two other business leaders have also offered to loan millions of dollars to the bridges project to get it started. Jones made a $10 million loan offer last week.
Jones said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer should demand that Mr. Obama come to Louisville. Instead, the mayor said he will meet the president in Northern Kentucky to discuss the Sherman Minton closure and the Ohio River Bridges Project.
"Whether or not the president comes is not the focus of what we need to do as far as this project is concerned," said David Tandy (D) Metro Council, a supporter of the resolution and key Obama supporter in Kentucky.
To backers of the bridges project, the timing of the president's trip and the Sherman Minton closure is a golden opportunity - after 52 years of talk - to get the east end bridge built.
"We have to do whatever it takes," Jones said.
"I don't think the Sherman Minton bridge closure and River Fields' position on the Ohio River Bridges Project are linked," Cory said. "Our next step is to do just what we've been doing."
CINCINNATI (PRESS RELEASE) – President Barack Obama is scheduled to visit Cincinnati Thursday (9/22) to talk about the need to replace the Brent Spence Bridge as he continues to promote The American Jobs Act.
White House Statement:
WASHINGTON – On Thursday, September 22, the President will travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, to deliver remarks at the Brent Spence Bridge, urging Congress to pass the American Jobs Act now so that we can make much-needed investments in infrastructure projects across the country and put more Americans back to work. The Brent Spence Bridge is on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America, yet it is considered ‘functionally obsolete’ because it is in need of so many significant repairs. If Congress passes the American Jobs Act, we can put more Americans back to work while getting repairs like this done.
The Bridge
The Brent Spence Bridge is a 48-year-old span between Cincinnati and Covington, Ky., that carries Interstates 75 and 71 over The Ohio River.
Local leaders have worked for more than a decade to replace the bridge, a project with a $2.4 billion price tag because it will require extensive work to a 7.8-mile stretch of I-75 in Ohio and Kentucky.
Interstate 75 serves as a freight conveyor belt for the eastern United States that runs from the northern tip of Michigan through six states to the southern edge of Florida. This 2,160 mile corridor of commerce moves goods to all modes of transport for distribution to the world.
The Brent Spence Bridge is at the convergence of I-71, I-74 and I-75 at the Ohio River. Its location is critical to north/south movements in the eastern United States while also connecting the upper Midwest with the ports and trade corridors of the Southwest and Southeast.
This bridge is the lynchpin to the nation’s busiest freight corridor. The yearly economic value of commerce that travels across the Brent Spence Bridge is an astounding $400 billion. By 2030, in real dollars, this amount grows to $815 billion.
However, because congestion levels are growing exponentially and crashes occur frequently along the corridor it is becoming more and more ineffective in the movement of goods and people.
Bridge facts:
• The bridge is named for Brent Spence, a Northern Kentucky native who represented Kentucky in Congress from 1930 to 1963.
• It opened on Nov. 25, 1963, the day President Kennedy was laid to rest.
• The bridge was designed to carry 80,00 vehicles a day. Today, it carries more than double that amount, an average of 170,000 vehicles a day.
• The bridge annually carries nearly 4 percent of nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
• The National Bridge Inventory has declared the bridge functionally obsolete, a classification for bridges built to federal standards that are not used today. The Brent Spence, for example, lacks emergency shoulders; they were removed in 1986 to handle growing traffic volume.
• On June 17, Cincinnati resident Abdoulaye Yattara, 42, died after being struck by a car on the bridge. He had apparently ran out of gas and was standing on the bridge waiting for help when he was struck and knocked over the side of the bridge into the Ohio River.
• Construction is scheduled to start in 2015 and be completed in 2023.
• The project still lacks a commitment for most of the money necessary to design and build the bridge.
For more information
Visit http://www.brentspencebridgecorridor.com/Home.html for bridge history, project status and more.
Bridge Builders Coalition
This document was created by The Bridge Builders Coalition, an organization working to create support and secure funding for the Brent Spence Bridge project. Members are: The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce; The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; The Cincinnati Business Committee; and The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (OKI) Regional Council of Governments.
