COVINGTON, Ky. — Drivers traveling along I-71/I-75 in Northern Kentucky Tuesday night had to navigate through rain and thick fog, but there was another noticeable hazard: miles of darkness.
“I was talking to my daughter (on the phone), and she was on her way down 71 — down the Cut in the Hill — and she was like, 'Well I need to get off because I really need to see what’s going on because it’s really bad,'" Susan Dedden said.
The Elsmere mother is one of roughly 200,000 drivers who travel along the interstate daily. Dedden said she's frustrated because the lack of working street lights wasn't just a problem Tuesday night. It's a consistent issue, she said.
"There’s no lights and it’s making it very difficult to see," Dedden said.
Some of the painted lines on the roadway are also faded, she stressed, which sometimes makes navigating the busy corridor difficult even when there is lighting.
"When it's wet and dark, you can't see the lines," she said.
WCPO reached out to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet on Wednesday. A spokesperson said District 6 is aware of the problem and coordinating with a contractor to "prioritize repairs to fix lighting on I-71/75 as quickly as possible."
The outages are the biggest complaints the district has on social media right now, the spokesperson said.
"We are aware of a number of lights being out on I-71/75," a statement reads. "It’s difficult to say how many lights are out on a given night because it could depend on a number of factors impacting the wiring including weather."
The problem boils down to the lighting infrastructure and that the current system is aging faster than KYTC can keep up with.
“It’s sad because it does need to be replaced immediately, you know, as soon as possible," Dedden said.
District 6 is currently dealing with significant issues with the wiring throughout the median walls, the spokesperson said.
"One short in a wire can cause a whole run of lights to go dark," the statement continues. "Lighting may go out intermittently depending on weather, and other factors. Our traffic department is investigating ways to improve the current infrastructure."
That explanation has driver Emanuel Golsby scratching his head.
"First and foremost what goes through my mind is, 'OK, is it a funding thing?'" he said. "Are they just waiting for something else to be able to replace it? Instead of just putting a band-aid on it, are they waiting for a bigger project like with the bridge, when they start working on the bridge, to replace everything then?"
Golsby lives in Erlanger and crosses the Brent Spent Bridge daily to get to work. He said he hopes KYTC does prioritize lighting repairs and quickly finds a solution to ensure a system that doesn't consistently go out.
"When it comes down to the bad weather, especially during the winter time — we'll get snow, we'll get sleet, we'll get rain — so drivers coming through there at night especially, they are going to struggle with that and not being able to see what's in front of them," said Golsby. "Hopefully they figure it out."
