COVINGTON, Ky. — The Brent Spence Bridge is about 55 miles away from Dayton on I-75, but a massive construction project will impact the Miami Valley in a number of ways.
Local leaders told News Center 7 that the project will help ease bumper to bumper conditions in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, as well as help the economy in the Miami Valley.
“Long and overdue and very, very important to the transportation, to the economic development, to just our everyday lives in the Dayton, Cincinnati and Kentucky area,” Jeff Hoagland, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, said.
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Each year, the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor carries $700 billion worth of freight. Hoagland said that the construction work will upgrade a vital supply chain route for the Miami Valley and support jobs in our region.
“It’s so important, especially as we look at one of our major industries is the logistics side of things. And with the I-70/75 corridor being one of the largest in North America,” he told News Center 7.
The Brent Spence Corridor Project, a team project between Ohio and Kentucky, will revamp an eight-mile stretch of the I-75 and I-71 Brent Spence Bridge Corridor.
For part of the project, crews will repair the existing bridge and build a brand new companion bridge right next to it. One for local traffic and another would be for drivers passing through the Greater Cincinnati area, easing the infamous gridlock that’s been frustrating drivers for decades.
“It carries twice the traffic it was made to handle,” President Joe Biden said while discussing the project in Covington, Kentucky on Wednesday. It’s the second most congested truck bottleneck in the entire United States.”
Last week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced that the project received over $1.6 billion in federal grants to help pay for the project, which is estimated to total more than $3 billion.
“When you ask the Cincinnati business community, ‘What’s your number one priority?’ They always say this bridge,” DeWine said Wednesday.
Hoagland said that the project will take the Miami Valley into the next “50 to 75 years.”
Construction on the project is expected to start later this year, with most of the work wrapping up some time in 2029.
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