By James Pilcher
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's list of projects planned for the next six years does not include a Brent Spence Bridge replacement. But a top agency official with local ties said Wednesday that the omission does not mean that the bridge is not a priority for the state.

"Absolutely not," said Dick Murgatroyd, the cabinet's deputy secretary and former Kenton County judge-executive. "The governor and (transportation) secretary are still fully on board and know how important this is."

The cabinet released the six-year plan to the state General Assembly on Wednesday; the plan is updated every two years. State and local officials have been pushing in Frankfort and Washington for a replacement of the 40-year-old bridge, which carries Interstates 71 and 75 between downtown Cincinnati and Covington.

The bridge was originally designed to carry 80,000 vehicles a day, but now carries more than 155,000. It also has major safety flaws, as outlined in a September Enquirer analysis, and could be wearing out by some estimates.

Preliminary estimates for replacing the bridge are about $750 million. Several ideas, including rehabilitating the Brent Spence and building a second bridge to the west, have been floated.

But Congress is finishing its six-year transportation funding plan, and until that is done and money is authorized for the Brent Spence, the state couldn't put the bridge in its long-term plan, Murgatroyd said. Any individual project must be added as a line item in conference between the House and Senate in Washington.

The Brent Spence is mentioned in an addendum as a major project on the horizon, with another $2.4 million in federal funds coming next year for further study.

"Even if we had the money, we couldn't really spend it in the next two years because we're in such a preliminary stage with this right now," Murgatroyd said.

One other "mega-project" considered elsewhere in the state - major reconstruction of an interstate junction and two new bridges in Louisville - made the six-year plan.

E-mail jpilcher@enquirer.com