Local group presents new redesign for Brent Spence Bridge project — this time with cheaper price tag

CINCINNATI — The local group Bridge Forward is presenting another design plan for the Brent Spence Bridge project after the Bi-State Management Team (BSMT) said there were "technical challenges" and "safety issues" with their original plan.

Bridge Forward's vision for the project, presented in April, focused on improved walkability and enhanced public safety, as well as reconnecting neighborhoods on the Cincinnati side of the bridge. But BSMT said the design could cost $100 million more than what Ohio and Kentucky had in mind.

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Leaders with Bridge Forward said on Wednesday they have a solution — or more of a compromise between their design and that of the states'.

"We think we finally got the right mix of the combinations of the two of those," said Bridge Forward's Brian Boland, comparing Bridge Forward's plan to the BSMT plan known as "I-W."

Bridge Forward

The new plan, he said, is a "little more compact" version of I-W.

"We wanted to go further, you know everything is about trade-offs," Boland said.

Bridge Forward's original plan would free up nearly 24 acres of land, compared to almost 13 acres proposed by BSMT. The BSMT memo mentions "geometric issues" and "stacking the interchange," which results in "frontage roads at an elevation about 30 to 40 feet higher than the surrounding land." It also refers to "safety issues" because of what it called "added conflict points and additional pedestrian crossing lengths."

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"It's always been about making the plan better because we want what's best for the city," Boland said. "When you look at some conceptually, you make a lot of assumptions and you find out once you really start to dig in the dirt some of your assumptions were right and some of your assumptions were wrong."

Bridge Forward's latest workaround focuses on US-50. Instead of the tunnel under mainline I-75 from the previous design, it's now a highway overpass. The old design includes losing some acres near the Bengals practice facility. The new one tightens up I-75 and Fort Washington Way, and does not move onto the Duke Energy or Bengals properties.

When asked how much money this new design is expected to save with these adjustments, Boland said on top of eliminating the tunnel on US-50 — which was estimated to cost more than $90 million, Bridge Forward believes the latest plan could also save between $15-20 million and be cheaper than the I-W plan.

In a statement, WCPO asked ODOT about Bridge Forward's latest plan. A spokesman told us:

"We have only seen pictures, not any design plans, so we have not had a chance to fully evaluate it. We learned about it on a call with Bridge Forward yesterday, the latest of several this year. An initial review reveals a lot of similarities with our current design. As we said last week with our memo, we plan to engage the Walsh Kokosing team with all public comments. Bridge Forward is one of those public comments."

Last week, a spokesman with Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval's office said in part that "while it’s premature for us to take a position on a particular final design, we will continue to be active partners with ODOT and advocates throughout the next steps of the process. Funding is not the only issue that ODOT has identified, but we look forward to all financial and practical ideas being considered."