COVINGTON, Ky. — "Lots of lights out again from i75 bridge to 275. Especially dangerous due to lots of traffic with Big Mac Bridge out of service. Government is never held accountable."
David Puthoff sent that message to WCPO in November, nine months after he first expressed his frustrations with long stretches of unlit highway along I-71 in Northern Kentucky. At that time, WCPO had already been asking the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for answers to the issue.
Puthoff isn't the only person to contact WCPO for an update. Another person reached out Tuesday asking, "Have there been any updates to your story from February 2024 regarding the lighting issues on I75 / I71? I drove down to Louisville in early January and the lighting did not seem to be fixed."
KYTC installed new LED bulbs inside the overhead highway lamps two years ago. Since then, illumination has been brighter, but also sporadic. The new bulbs did not fix the aging infrastructure struggling to power them.
WCPO recently learned the wiring inside the concrete medians is over 50 years old. District 6 Chief Engineer Bob Yeager said contractors are making repairs on an almost daily basis.
Learn more about the frustrations with the interstate lighting in the player below:
"When one goes out, they all go out. Of course, finding that one that's bad is extremely difficult, so that's what we're doing," Yeager said. "And of course the wires... are not exposed, which is good, but at the same time, they're not exposed so we can't find them. So whether they've broken apart or there's been water that's gotten in there...they have a tendency to crack. The freeze/thaw cycle when the moisture gets in there, makes it very brittle."
We drove south on I-71 from Covington to Florence Monday night. While some lights were on along the route, dozens were unlit.
Yeager revealed that KYTC has invested around $800,000 in wiring repairs in the past two years. He said the department hasn't yet endeavored to replace the outdated infrastructure because it's been waiting for work to begin on the multi-billion dollar Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project.
"The question is: do you spend millions of dollars to put something in you're going to take out next year or the year after?" Yeager said. "With the (project) all those lights will be replaced."
Yeager couldn't give a timeline for when drivers could expect to see crews begin replacement work, but a groundbreaking on the Brent Spence companion bridge could happen as early as the end of the year. Kentucky Transportation Secretary Jim Gray said Monday the project is 30% through the design and engineering phase.
In the meantime, drivers can expect to see intermittent lighting along I-71. Yeager said KYTC is looking into temporary solutions including the possibility of installing solar panels in the lighting system.
"Put a solar panel up on top of the light Let that generate its own electricity — no wires... at least wires we can get to," he said. 'We're working on it."
