Construction on the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project, which includes construction of the new supplemental bridge and work to address a mile of freeway approaches on each side in Ohio and Kentucky, is moving forward with a key recent approval allowing federal funds to begin flowing for the project.
Although no date has been set, the new bridge to connect Cincinnati and northern Kentucky over the Ohio River is expected to break ground this spring. The cost of the project has risen to about $4.5 billion from a previously estimated $3.6 billion, an increase that Kentucky Gov. Andy Breshear (D) attributes to a “significant increase in the costs of construction materials, goods and services in recent years.”
The new bridge, a companion bridge to the existing 1960s Brent Spence Bridge, will be located to the west of the existing cantilever truss bridge and will be a cable-stayed structure. Like the existing bridge, it will have two decks.
The project is being overseen by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which received approval in March from the Ohio Controlling Agency, which manages the state’s budget and financial activities, for the authority to finalize construction plans for the project.
Breshear called the approval “a major milestone” for the project to be led by a joint venture of Walsh Construction and Kokosing.
“The bistate management team worked closely with the Walsh-Kokosing design and construction team to aggressively mitigate costs during the design process. From 2020 to 2025, highway construction costs increased nationally by 61 percent,” an ODOT press release states.
Pay for union construction labor on the project is expected to start at about $30 an hour. Anyone interested in working on the project should go here.
“This project has been discussed for decades and we are now at the point where plans are becoming reality,” Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Director Pamela Boratyn said in a news release.
The project is expected to generate approximately 6 million man hours and employ more than 700 skilled workers, with the workforce potentially reaching 1,000 at peak construction.
It is estimated that more than $1 billion in freight passes through the Ohio-Kentucky corridor daily. The new bridge is expected to open in 2031, with full completion of the project in 2033.
