Published: April 23, 2008 12:00 pm      

Downtown bridge aesthetics unveiled

Kentucky financing questions linger for project

Aesthetics, including shape, color and lighting, for a planned bridge across the Ohio River that will connect Southern Indiana to Downtown Louisville were unveiled during an open house in Jeffersonville on Tuesday night.

Matt Bullock — the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s interim project manager of the Ohio River Bridges project — said the designs on display during the open house were the product of public input offered by residents on both sides of the river.

The downtown bridge will carry traffic north on Interstate 65 and will span the river next to the existing Kennedy Bridge, which will handle southbound traffic. The deck of the bridge will be supported by cables attached to three towers. Six lanes, 12-foot shoulders and a 17-foot pedestrian and bike path are among the structure’s features. It will use crisp angles which blend in its urban setting, said Bob Lauder, a spokesman with the project from firm Doe Anderson.

Funding worries

The downtown bridge is part of a larger project which seeks to build two new spans between Indiana and Kentucky and rebuild downtown Louisville’s Spaghetti Junction, where Interstates 64, 65 and 71 meet. The second bridge will be in Utica and connect to Louisville’s east end.

The project’s $4.1 billion price tag has been a major hurdle, especially for lawmakers in the Bluegrass State. The projects initial financing plan, approved late last year, called for $340 million over the next two years, Bullock said. However, legislators agreed to fund the project at only $231 million.

Construction of the east end-bridge is expected to start in 2011. Despite the funding discrepancy, Bullock said, that schedule is still being followed.

He said it was unclear which facets of the project the $231 million would fund. However, he added that the design and right-of-way acquisition can continue.

“It does put off the ultimate decision of how to fund the overall project,” he said.

He said there also has been talk of a special session by the Kentucky Legislature, during which more funding could be approved. Tolling has also been discussed as a possible source of dollars.

Indiana garnered its money for the project through the Major Moves program, which leased the Northern Indiana Toll Road for $3.8 billion.

For Kentucky, there’s also financial worry concerning a tunnel planned on the Louisville side which is to lead up to the east-end bridge.

For the sake of historical preservation, a tunnel had been planned to go underneath land in the area. However, bids for exploratory drilling needed to test the geological soundness of putting in a tunnel recently came in 39 percent higher than initially expected, at $19 million.

There are no plans in the works to get additional bids, Bullock said. Officials are considering using a practice known as directional drilling in order to test the geology. He said the drilling would be faster and cheaper, but officials are unsure whether it would give them the data needed to construct a tunnel.

There’s no timetable in place for making that decision, he said.

Detractors and advocates

During a Monday night meeting, local businessman Kerry Stemler, a member of an advocacy group called The Build the Bridges Coalition, asked Jeffersonville City Council members to be cheerleaders for the project.

“This project needs champions,” he said.

Many states want to be in the position that The Ohio River Bridges Project is in, he said. It has a federal record of decision and a funding plan that’s been approved by both states involved.

The Build the Bridges Coalition is made up of economic groups such as One Southern Indiana, Greater Louisville Inc., and Louisville’s Downtown Development Corp.

The group is there to advocate advancing the project and educate people on where the project stands, Stemler said.

He considers Kentucky’s $231 million over the next two years to be a success.

Others see it as a concern because it’s less than the $340 million initially agreed to in the financing plan.

Joe Burgan, spokesman for 8664, expressed concern that the lower amount could eventually slow down the progress of the east-end bridge, something essential to his group’s cause.

“We believe the long term traffic needs of this region hinge on building that east-end bridge,” Burgan said.

The Louisville-based grassroots group 8664 advocates redirecting I-64 traffic over an east-end bridge and removing the interstate from Louisville’s Spaghetti Junction.

Doing so would be cheaper by alleviating the need for a downtown bridge and a Spaghetti Junction rebuild, supporters of the plan argue. It would also allow for more green space in downtown Louisville if the interstate was removed.

“We can’t do the things we need to do downtown without that (east-end) bridge,” he said.

Detractors of the 8664 plan say it’s too late to introduce a new idea.

“I don’t think it should see the light of day,” Stemler said of the group’s idea. “It makes no good sense” considering that the two-bridge project already has gone through studies and gotten federal approval.

Burgan said despite what’s been approved, they’ll continue to push their message.