In Mayor Mallory's final state of the city address, he suggested that a bridge could be built between Cincinnati and Kentucky on the west side of town.

 

I think this would have a huge economic impact on the west side of the city, since it would link the west side directly to the airport. It could also significantly reduce traffic on the Brent Spence Bridge. Finally, it could be designed to serve as a future light rail bridge, and perhaps used for a downtown-to-airport line.

I was going to mention this. Interesting to see this brought up again. Especially with talk of tolls on the Brent Spence and Western Hills Viaduct. Westsiders have in the past been firmly against the idea.

 

And I think when they studied a Brent Spence replacement they looked into adding another bridge further west.

For light rail, it would be shorter and more urban than following the interstate through Covington and Fort Mitchell.

^More urban, yes, but I don't know about shorter.  It doesn't feel like it, but the airport is just across the river from Mt. St. Joe.  I believe there's a significant hill that would need to be climbed though.

 

 

I've always hoped a bridge would eventually connect NKY with the west side.  Those neighborhoods feel so remote when you're in KY.  CVG should be pushing heavily for this, as should those who do not wish to toll/replace the Brent Spence.

I think this news might be a canary foreshadowing the collapse of the Brent Spence Bridge project.  This new west side bridge was studied early on in the Brent Spence planning, around 2003.  Since the Anderson Ferry charges a fee and would be driven out of business, they could definitely toll this new bridge and make it a reality quickly. 

I fail to see how this would be much of a benefit to anyone but a few gas station franchises and fast food restaurants.  Most of the land on both sides of the river is already developed, even if mostly suburban, and if there was so much demand for travel across the river then wouldn't Anderson Ferry be swamped?  I don't know how much west side/Boone County commuting is going on, but I doubt it has more than a marginal impact on traffic volumes on either the Brent Spence or Caroll C. Cropper bridges.  This notion that new roads/bridges/highways bring about some new golden age of prosperity hasn't been true for generations now, and it needs to stop.

I've always thought we had such few bridges. We have 3 non interstate bridges, one is one lane each direction, and the other two have awkward landings in Cincinnati.

 

Not saying this is the best spot, and I doubt it would drive much ED, but it is interesting we don't have one here.

I fail to see how this would be much of a benefit to anyone but a few gas station franchises and fast food restaurants.  Most of the land on both sides of the river is already developed, even if mostly suburban, and if there was so much demand for travel across the river then wouldn't Anderson Ferry be swamped?  I don't know how much west side/Boone County commuting is going on, but I doubt it has more than a marginal impact on traffic volumes on either the Brent Spence or Caroll C. Cropper bridges.  This notion that new roads/bridges/highways bring about some new golden age of prosperity hasn't been true for generations now, and it needs to stop.

 

Yeah, as a west-sider, its typically easier for me to either go out 275, down 75, or across the ferry. I'm not really sure where a convenient place to put such a bridge, aside from right over the ferry, and even then, it doesn't seem like there would be that much demand.

I believe during the OKI Western Hamilton County Study they estimated 50k per day in traffic which would have been the highest total outside of the Interstate Bridges.  Also the recent ODOT Value of Money Study for the Brent Spence predicted at over 70k would divert from I-75 if  1-2 dollars were charged in tolls which would greatly change the congestion problem by itself.

I believe during the OKI Western Hamilton County Study they estimated 50k per day in traffic which would have been the highest total outside of the Interstate Bridges.  Also the recent ODOT Value of Money Study for the Brent Spence predicted at over 70k would divert from I-75 if  1-2 dollars were charged in tolls which would greatly change the congestion problem by itself.

 

Why not toll the existing Brent Spence and Big Mac bridges, and use that money to maintain the existing bridges and build two new non-Interstate bridges on the east and west sides (in the vicinity of Dayton, Kentucky and the Anderson Ferry)? That solution would reduce congestion on the "functionally obsolete" Interstate bridges, and offer local traffic more opportunities to cross the river on either side of downtown. Long-distance truck traffic could decide whether to stay on I-75 or go around the loop, depending on the tolls, which could fluctuate based on time of day / traffic congestion levels.

^Not as much money in that plan, Travis.  Two new small bridges are way less expensive than one gigantic new bridge. 

New bridge in Portsmouth cost $38 million in 2006:

 

So we could build 50 of these bridges versus just one Brent Spence. 

Why not toll the existing Brent Spence and Big Mac bridges, and use that money to maintain the existing bridges and build two new non-Interstate bridges on the east and west sides (in the vicinity of Dayton, Kentucky and the Anderson Ferry)? That solution would reduce congestion on the "functionally obsolete" Interstate bridges, and offer local traffic more opportunities to cross the river on either side of downtown. Long-distance truck traffic could decide whether to stay on I-75 or go around the loop, depending on the tolls, which could fluctuate based on time of day / traffic congestion levels.

 

I agree, if tolling is vital for a new Brent Spence, why wait. Start charging fees right now.

^Because then it would become obvious that a new bridge isn't actually needed.  It's likely that enough trips would be diverted/combined/eliminated to bring the Brent Spence itself out of functional obsolescence.

New bridge in Portsmouth cost $38 million in 2006:

 

So we could build 50 of these bridges versus just one Brent Spence. 

 

The new Central Bridge cost $24 million when it opened, in 1996, if I remember correctly. A new bridge at any random place over the Ohio River should cost less than $50 million. Even a new Brent Spence shouldn't cost that much.

 

The reason why the proposed Brent Spence bridge replacement costs so much is because of all of the approaches, which can be several times the cost of the bridge over the actual river. At one point they were talking about rebuilding I-75 all the way back to Union Terminal! All of that work requires taking of valuable real estate. On top of all of that, it is presumed that traffic will be maintained during construction.

 

A new West Side bridge would be cheap in comparison.

 

By the way, the shortest line between Downtown and the airport goes through Delhi. A route from downtown to the airport via Anderson Ferry is about a mile shorter than a route from downtown to the airport via I-75 and I-275. The reason why the ferry doesn't take more traffic is because it is too slow and because the approaches are poor on both sides of the river. If you are travelling between Delhi and the airport, the ferry is faster, but for anything north of Delhi it is faster to take I-75 and I-275, or for some folks, to take I-74 and I-275 around the other way past Lawrenceburg.

 

None of this really matters, since airline traffic is declining anyway. The airport is becoming less and less important.

The idea of building more smaller local bridges to take traffic load off of Brent Spence is definitely good, especially if cheaper because of less overall roadwork etc.  If bridges could be designed to have light rail crossing the river too, that effect would be increased dramatically.  Less people driving on Brent Spence = good.  Less people driving in general = even better.

 

None of this really matters, since airline traffic is declining anyway. The airport is becoming less and less important.

 

 

That's what I thought...  I was in a Transportation planning class last week where a presentation was given on OKI's 2040 Freight Plan.  They estimated that Air Traffic would grow by something crazy like 170% with highway freight growing by 70% down to river freight only growing by 7%.  It seemed like they were using 1990s data to project into the future.  I can't imagine the airline industry growing that much in 30 years. 

 

That's what I thought...  I was in a Transportation planning class last week where a presentation was given on OKI's 2040 Freight Plan.  They estimated that Air Traffic would grow by something crazy like 170% with highway freight growing by 70% down to river freight only growing by 7%.  It seemed like they were using 1990s data to project into the future.  I can't imagine the airline industry growing that much in 30 years. 

 

Nor can the FAA. Their research staff put together a report on the maturation of the airline industry and suggested there were enough indicators that the industry is saturated and at, or near a growth plateau. The FAA staff presented their findings at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting a couple years ago in a report called "Could the domestic air travel market be nearing saturation?" The findings were so thoroughly hated by local governments and others who own airports that they urged that the document not be released as an official FAA report. In fact, it's virtually impossible to find on the web. Good thing I have a copy of it.....

 

 

 

 

That second graph above is exactly like the traffic projections of the Washington Department of Transportation for a particular highway.  Traffic is gonna explode any day now!

 

 

Calling B.S. on WSDOT

Agency doesn't even bother to get the facts about SR-520 right.

And don't forget:

 

Hahaha....I told the OKI representative in our class that those videos posted by OKI were Blatant Propaganda and that I was ashamed that they were produced by our Metropolitan Planning Org.  He scoffed that the notion, but I kept pressing him with quotes from the video.  "Every day, the terrifyingly unsafe and deadly Brent Spence Bridge threatens the 200,000 people who cross it."  Lol, if that's not fear mongering, I don't know what is. 

 

I really cannot wait for our country's DOTs to ditch the status quo and actually pay attention to what's going on.