COVINGTON, Ky. — Stuck between two of Northern Kentucky’s largest upcoming riverfront developments is an aging bridge that could be given new life.
Several dozen people flocked to an open house Tuesday evening. Their goal? To provide input on the future of the 4th Street Bridge. The Devou Good Foundation released three renderings of what the bridge could be. Those renderings were labeled "Spin," "Spoke" and "Tube."
Spin features a circular ramp for pedestrians and bicyclists that connects to other trail networks, while Spoke has triangular-shaped observation areas with greenery and includes a possible streetcar expansion. Tube separates pedestrians and bicyclists from traffic and the possible streetcar expansion.
"I really like Spoke. With interactions, I’m a design guy. It does a good job, in my opinion, of separating the pedestrian and vehicular traffic, but also interacting both together," said Tanner Wooddell.
Joe Humpert, president of Queen City Bike, said each rendering offered a new vision for what the bridge could become.
"I favor Spin mostly because the rendering we see does the best job showing the trail connections," he said.
The 4th Street Bridge, built in the 1930s, is considered by KYTC officials to be functionally obsolete. The KYTC has planned for the past six years to redesign the bridge. That plan included four lanes of vehicular traffic.
"It doesn’t seem sane to build something that looks like standard, flat concrete interstate," Humpert said.
That’s why the Devou Good Foundation is stepping in to provide an alternative design to present to the KYTC in early 2023.
"As far as we know, this is the first time an outside entity that’s not part of the government agency has done competing designs," said Matt Butler, president of the Devou Good Foundation. "We did this because we want to elevate the designs. This is a bridge that will stand for the next 100 years."
The designs presented to community members Tuesday focus on multi-modal transportation: bikes, pedestrians, scooters, mobility devices, and light rail.
"We can future-proof this, include embedded rails," Butler said.
The 4th Street Bridge is one of the two main connections between Newport and Covington. The bridge is expected to be used more frequently as the Ovation development in Newport, and the former IRS site development in Covington are built.
The Devou Good Foundation will host another open house in Newport on Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the Headquarters Wedding and Event Venue.
Organizers will take the input from both events, as well as the responses from 1,300 people who filled out an online survey, to the Newport City Council and Covington City Commission. Then it’s on to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
"I hope the transportation cabinet, and the municipalities of Covington and Newport, all the river cities, will embrace the opportunity and make something really striking."
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