Obama Jobs Bill Might Not Help Touted Bridge

IBD Editorials ^ | September 21, 2011 | JOHN MERLINE, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

[Kaslin]

The 48-year-old Brent Spence Bridge spanning the Ohio River near Cincinnati isn't much to look at. But for President Obama, it's become a rallying cry for his $477 billion jobs plan.

He referred to it in his Sept. 8 speech to Congress, saying "there's a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that's on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America." And on Thursday he plans to use Brent Spence as the backdrop for another pitch for his jobs bill, which includes $27 billion in "immediate" highway spending.

But while local officials are delighted with Obama's attention, Brent Spence might not be eligible for that jobs bill money.

"Will funds be available for this bridge? We don't know at this point," said a spokesman for Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, whose district is in the area.

Although some press accounts have described Brent Spence as "crumbling," and the White House says it's an example of "ur gently needed" repairs, the bridge isn't falling apart. In fact, it's designed to last for decades more.

It is, however, "functionally obsolete," which in this case means it's too small to handle the daily traffic load. While designed to handle 85,000 cars and trucks, it now carries more than 150,000, leading to regular backups.

So the plan isn't to do extensive repairs on the bridge, but to build an entirely new one right next to it and keep the old one in use.

The problem is that construction work on the $2.3 billion bridge isn't scheduled to start for three or four years, according to the project's official website.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’m sure once the new companion bridge is built, the older one will be taken from service for refurbishing whether or not it needed it.

[Nepeta]

I'm very familiar with this bridge. Originally intended to carry 2 lanes on the top deck and 2 lanes on the bottom deck, it now no longer has a breakdown lane and has 4 narrow lanes on each deck.

It's a traffic bottleneck when traffic is flowing, and a huge annoyance when it isn't. (Remember, the Cincinnati airport is in northern Kentucky.) There has been serious discussion and planning about what to do for about 10 years. The issue is exactly how to do the changeover, not whether or not this bridge needs to be replaced or refurbished.

[She hits a grand slam tonight]

I guess $27 billion in highway contracts will balloon into $100 billion after cost over-runs.

[glaseatr]

What!! we didn’t fix these damn bridges with the first trillion dollars???? And being a betting man, they wouldn’t get fixed with the next 500 billion either!