NEWPORT, Ky. — As many drivers wait for the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge to reopen and for their commute to be back to normal, officials are working on traffic adjustments to make those longer drives easier.
I left WCPO 9 News just before 5 p.m. on Friday. On a normal day, a drive from the station into Northern Kentucky takes less than 10 minutes. But after a major fire damaged parts of the Big Mac Bridge, that drive is now twice as long.
“On a normal day there’s around 50,000 combined between 471 southbound and northbound, so you know that traffic had to go somewhere,” said Jersson Pachar, a traffic engineering technician for Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI).
A recent report from OKI says 33,000 vehicles per day on average have moved to nearby bridges in the two weeks since the fire and subsequent lane closures.
“You see it, you see the impacts of that 33,000 that’s for sure,” said Pachar.
However, officials are working to hopefully ease some of that traffic.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) on Friday began signal timing adjustments to improve traffic flow at a number of Newport intersections.
The changes will take place 2-6 p.m. Monday through Friday at the following intersections:
- Third Street/Monmouth Street
- Third Street/Saratoga Street
- Third Street/Washington Avenue
- Washington Avenue/Dave Cowens Drive
- Dave Cowens Drive/Park Avenue
KYTC says these improvements will more efficiently move traffic off the Taylor Southgate Bridge toward I-471 or KY-9.
On the Ohio side, the Department of Transportation and Engineering (DOTE) has been studying the timing of various signals on Columbia Parkway and adjusting these as needed to accommodate additional traffic during peak travel times.
Starting next week, KYTC will install 47 upgraded controllers in traffic cabinets along the state routes in downtown Covington. They will allow engineers to see how often side streets are running green, the effectiveness of the timing of signals and traffic patterns in the area.
These controllers will be installed on all signals on Fourth Street, Fifth Street, Greenup Street, Scott Street, Madison Avenue (on portions owned by the state) and Main Street.
The plan was to install them later this year but with the partial closure of the Big Mac Bridge, they expedited the plan.
Engineers will use the information given to adjust signal times to alleviate traffic congestion and, hopefully, some headaches.
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