CINCINNATI — The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) are hosting five public hearings to talk about the supplemental environmental assessment of the Brent Spence Bridge corridor.
ODOT Press Secretary Matt Bruning said the hearings will give an in-depth look at the report and allow people to voice their opinions.
“There will be a court stenographer there, the thing will be recorded, all of the comments that come in will be officially recorded and then responded to, so it won’t be a Q&A session during the actual hearing,” Bruning said.
He said they will have an open house format before the public hearings.
There will be four in-person meetings, two in Ohio and two in Kentucky, and one virtual meeting. They’re asking people to register in advance if they would like speak during public comment.
“We want to hear from really everybody who is impacted in one way or another by what we’re doing here,” Bruning said.
Matt Butler with the Devou Good Foundation said it’s important for the community to show up at these meetings.
“This is a huge amount of money,” Butler said. “It’s important for ODOT to hear from the public, what they want to see in this project. We hope that ODOT will take all those comments into serious consideration.”
Butler said each person will get two minutes to speak. He wants ODOT and KYTC to take a step back because he has some concerns about the environmental impacts this project will have on the area and people who live nearby.
“The thing that they’re glossing over is that we’re highly segregated here, and most of the minorities are in higher populations right around the project area, so they’re going to be breathing in more greenhouse gas emissions, more pollution, they’re going to have to deal with more water runoff from it and more noise,” Butler said.
In the environmental justice analysis report, minority and low-income residents expressed their concerns about the project. Some of their concerns included: increased traffic and associated noise, air quality, the desire for noise barriers, creating additional development land, and improving connections across I-75 Ohio.
“I think actually we’ve made some really good gains on trying to undo some of those things that have happened when the highway system was built,” Bruning said. We’re “trying to do better connections between downtown and those communities to the west of the interstates.”
Bruning said the City of Cincinnati wanted a better connection on Ezzard Charles Drive. He said that was something that came out of a walking tour with the Cincinnati mayor and ODOT director. Bruning said there will be a wider overpass there with some green space that could be developed.
Another concern Butler has is increasing the number of lanes and transport emissions. He said he wants ODOT to do a full environmental impact study.
“They’re operating under what’s called a supplemental environmental assessment from 2012, and a lot of things have changed within the last 12 years. ODOT has even changed this plan pretty dramatically,” Butler said.
He pointed out that now there is a lot more science behind global warming and greenhouse gas emissions and what’s contributing to it.
Bruning said they spent years reassessing that report.
“We have gone through and updated all of the technical documents and the analysis over the last 2.5 to 3 years, so all of that has been re-assessed. I mean a lot obviously has changed even with the project,” he said.
The Federal Highway Administration signed off on public review in January.
The public hearings will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Covington on Tuesday Feb. 20 and between noon and 3:30 p.m. and 4:30-8 p.m. The hearings will be hosted at the same on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at the Longworth Hall Event Center in Cincinnati. The virtual meeting will be held on Feb. 22 between 5:30-7 p.m.
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