CINCINNATI — The long awaited Brent Spence Corridor Project is one step closer to getting started after receiving more than $1 billion in federal funding.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced Thursday that the project was being awarded $1.635 billion in federal funding grants for the project. In the joint announcement, the governors said the funding gives the project the “green light to move toward construction.”
DeWine said that the two states have been discussing the project for nearly two decades. The two governors announced revised plans for the project “based on community engagement and technical analysis” in July. A month later, the two states jointly submitted a second federal funding application for the project.
“This project will not only ease the traffic nightmare that drivers have suffered through for years, but it will also help ensure that the movement of the supply chain doesn’t stall on this nationally significant corridor,” DeWine said in a release Thursday.
The bridge was constructed in the 1960s to carry around 80,000 vehicles a day. Today, the bridge carries 160,000 vehicles a day on Interstates 71 and 75.
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Plans for the project include constructing a companion bridge to the west of the existing bridge, as well as improvements to the current bridge and the roadway network that ties into each river crossing.
“Once complete, drivers will have a more enjoyable and efficient drive and we’ll have the infrastructure in place to support the booming economy in this part of the state,” Beshear said.
Now the the project has secured funding, groundbreaking for the project is anticipated to happen for late 2023 and larger construction activities are anticipated in 2024. “Substantial” completion of the project is expected by 2029.
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