Friday, February 11, 2000
OKI looks at plan for new bridge
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A proposal to build a bridge connecting western Hamilton County with Boone County took a step forward Thursday.
Although there's no money for a $500,000 to $600,000 study, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana (OKI) Regional Council of Governments members Thursday voted to look at the costs, benefits and feasibility of a bridge.
The next step will be figuring out where the money will come from, who will do the study and which citizens and community leaders need to be involved. There's no time line for that.
The bridge, proposed in Hamilton County's collaborative plan, has been controversial. Proponents say it could relieve congestion on the Brent Spence Bridge and open up western Hamilton County for development. Residents say it invites sprawl.
“My objection is it's part of a plan to inundate the west side of Hamilton County with the same degree of expansion of sprawl that's already dominant on the east side of Cincinnati,” said Bob Neal, Cheviot resident and member of Concerned Citizens of Western Hamilton County. “I don't want it.”
Last year, at Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin's request, the county engineer's office drafted a letter asking that the bridge feasibility study be put on OKI's long-term transportation plan.
If money can be found, Thursday's vote allows for a study of various options, including a look at the cost and benefits of various locations around the villages of North Bend, Addyston and Cleves — as well as the option of no bridge at all.
“All it is is a study,” Mr. Dowlin said. “The study would answer: Is there an advantage to having a bridge there?”
Glen Brand, head of the Sierra Club's Cincinnati chapter, said a good study will reveal the cost of traffic congestion and sprawl in western Hamilton and Boone counties.
“If they do a real honest study, they will see this will be a very poor investment for our region,” he said.
OKI members voted to make the study a sub-study of the larger Interstate 75 corridor study that is just getting under way. It is similar to how it studied the massive reconstruction now taking place on Fort Washington Way as a part of the Interstate 71 corridor study.
But some OKI representatives questioned whether the I-75 study was the best place for a study of the new bridge, and several representatives voted against the idea. The I-75 corridor study will look at ways to improve passenger and freight traffic on the interstate in Greater Cincinnati and Greater Dayton.
“I would hate to see the emphasis drawn off the Brent Spence Bridge,” said John Deatrick, Cincinnati's transportation director, noting that the I-75 bridge over the Ohio River is crowded. “We need to have a clear idea of what we want to accomplish.”
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