By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Beginning Dec. 29, Cincinnati's oldest link between the Kentucky and Ohio shores will temporarily be a one-way street.

For about three months, only the southbound lane of the Roebling Suspension Bridge will be open to vehicular traffic while crews make improvements to the Cincinnati side of the 137-year-old bridge - the older but smaller brother to engineer John A. Roebling's Brooklyn Bridge.

Vehicles won't be able to cross the bridge from Covington to Cincinnati.

Instead, they will be routed along Covington's Fourth Street to the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, which empties onto Cincinnati's Second and Third streets.

The one-way traffic on the suspension bridge is expected to last until mid-March, said Cincinnati city architect Mark McKillip.

The purpose of the reconstruction project, McKillip said, is to connect the bridge roadway to the new Theodore M. Berry Way on the Cincinnati riverfront. It's a connection that city planners hope will eventually make it easy for northbound bridge motorists to get to a planned riverfront park.

Pedestrian traffic will be maintained during the construction, McKillip said, but detoured to a new set of stairs leading to riverfront Parking Lot D.

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com