Opinion: Brent Spence Bridge project needs to happen
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Well-meaning special interest groups are trying to torpedo the Brent Spence Bridge project? Say it isn’t so. They must not spend much time trying to cross the I-75 bridge during the week.
I don’t either, for that matter − because I purposely avoid it all costs. If I ever need to get across the Ohio River, I’ll use the Big Mac Bridge or go via I-275 in Lawrenceburg, Ind. Having grown up in northern Hamilton County starting as a fourth-grader in 1964, I still have nightmares from the time that I-75 was the only local interstate on the map.
Reading Road, with all its traffic lights, was still the preferred route to the Cincinnati Gardens to see the Royals play. Today, driving to 5th Street to watch Reds or Bengals games, you can regularly wave at the stopped traffic trying to get across the Brent Spence Bridge.
Opposing view:Plenty not to like about Brent Spence Bridge project
Traffic studies have shown that the constant Brent Spence Bridge backups cost the area millions of dollars in wasted revenue each year. That doesn’t account for the aggravation and numerous traffic accidents, either.
Yes, blame the planner who thought it would be a cost-effective idea to put two of our major national north/south interstates − I-75 and I-71 − across the same bridge in Cincinnati. It’s meant years of too much traffic across an obsolete span.
Now, a reasonable plan is in place for a new bridge, the funding is finally available − it just takes the political will to get it done.
As someone who has worked in Hamilton for more than four decades, the assault on the Brent Spence Bridge project reminds me of all the hand-wringing involving the Butler Regional Highway that connects Hamilton to I-75 in Liberty Township.
Hamilton was reportedly the largest city in the country without direct access to the interstate system in 1970 when Gov. James Rhodes said that the highway would be built. Shortly thereafter, the Kent State shootings took place, and his focus was permanently distracted.
Credit goes to the Butler County Engineer’s Office, which kept the right-of-way open for some 25 more years until government officials pulled a plan and funding together. In the meantime, special interest groups sued, delayed, and wailed about the project.
A friend of mine in economic development posed as a prospective home buyer asking a real estate agent about the highway. He was told it would never be built … and that if it was, he would never know it was there. He laughingly told me he could have flipped a pitching wedge into the right-of-way.
Today − you don’t hear a peep of criticism about the Butler Regional Highway, which finally opened in 1998. It has provided access, development and opportunity all along its 10-mile corridor.
It’s true that progress often creates some dislocation. But for the wide-angle interests of the area, the Brent Spence Bridge project needs to happen. When it is completed in 2029 or thereabouts, the overwhelming public feeling will certainly be something along the lines of: "Finally!"
Dirk Q. Allen is a former opinion page editor of the Hamilton JournalNews. He lives in Oxford.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: Brent Spence Bridge project needs to happen
