WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rehabilitating the Brent Spence Bridge will be one of the Trump administration’s top infrastructure priorities, according to a transition document obtained by the Kansas City Star and McClatchy Washington Bureau.
The document, which McClatchy reported on Tuesday had been circulated within congressional and business communities, designates the bridge as No. 2 on a list of 50 “Emergency & National Security Projects” and estimates the cost of a replacement at $2.5 billion out of a cumulative $137.5 billion price tag.
However, there's some doubt as to whether the list is legitimate: POLITICO reported Wednesday that Brigham McCown, who worked on Trump's transition team, confirmed the list wasn't accurate. Some of the projects had already been completed or hadn't requested federal funding, POLITICO reported.
WATCH: Brent Spence Bridge opens on Nov. 25, 1963
If the project were completed, it would fulfill one of Trump’s most direct and ambitious campaign promises to Greater Cincinnati -- but its place on the list doesn’t guarantee a quick start. The 50 projects are intended, according to the document, to be partially funded by private investments and partially funded by the federal government. The Brent Spence project, along with many others, is still seeking federal funding.
Officials with the Kentucky Transportation cabinet said Jan. 18 that the bridge was “structurally sound” but functionally outdated for the amount of traffic it experiences for every day.
Other sources have been less kind. The Hill, a Washington-based publication, ranked the bridge as the No. 1 “infrastructure emergency” in the United States, and former President Barack Obama said in 2011 that the structure was “in such poor condition, it’s functionally obsolete.”
The document does not elaborate how it plans to rehabilitate the bridge -- whether that rehabilitation would entail repairs or a replacement -- but does hint that the project could bring another one of Trump's campaign promises to fruition in the form of 2,200 newly created jobs.
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