The bad news: the Brent Spence Bridge has closed half its lanes for maintenance for most of the year.
The good news… well, there really isn’t any.
Several lanes and ramps on the bridge, which the American Transportation Research Institute recently named the No. 2 bottleneck for freight trucks in the entire nation, closed Monday night for routine work.
The two westernmost lanes are closed during the first phase of the project, while the two easternmost lanes remain open. During phase two, those will switch.
In Ohio, the ramp to I-71 southbound from Fort Washington Way and the ramp to I-71 southbound from Third Street are both closed. Basically, if you’re in downtown Cincinnati, forget hopping onto southbound I-71.
On the Kentucky side, the ramp to I-74/I-75 northbound is closed in Covington.
During the closure, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet will manage a maintenance project to clean and paint the bridge. The entire project is expected to last until Nov. 15.
As the work continues, KYTC recommends that motorists use I-275 and I-471 as detours, likely to prevent the immense road rage that would occur as drivers tried to squeeze thousands of cars into the bridge's two remaining lanes.
The Brent Spence Bridge, a major connector between Cincinnati and Covington, has become less and less efficient for transportation over the years. A website for the bridge’s 2017 maintenance project states that the structure was originally built to carry 80,000-100,000 vehicles per day, but traffic in recent years has doubled to 160,000-180,000 vehicles each day.
In November, the Brent Spence Bridge was closed for about six weeks due to two semi-trucks crashing and causing a chemical spill. The closure caused major disruptions for commuters across the region until it reopened on Dec. 22.
For more information about the bridge closure, visit brentspencebridgeinfo.org.
