Submitted by the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project
If you’ve driven near the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor lately, you’ve probably noticed activity in several places at the same time. Cranes near the river, retaining walls going up, demolition underway. It can look like organized chaos. It’s actually just organized.
A question that recently came in on social media captures what some are wondering: Why can’t you just build the companion bridge first and then work on all the roadway connections?
It’s a fair question, and the short answer is: waiting would cost years.
The Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project is not simply a new bridge over the Ohio River. It is eight miles of improved roadways along one of the nation’s most critical interstate corridors, encompassing highway rebuilding, new approaches to the existing Brent Spence Bridge, two miles of approaches to the new companion bridge, bike and pedestrian facilities, stormwater upgrades and more. If the companion bridge were built first and everything else followed in sequence, the finished structure would sit unconnected to the surrounding road network for years, unable to carry a single car or truck.
Ohio and Kentucky worked closely with the project’s design-build team to develop an aggressive phased construction schedule that advances all of these elements simultaneously. Building concurrently compresses the timeline and gets the completed system into service sooner.
None of this happened quickly. The project’s design and management teams have dedicated nearly 2 million hours to planning the construction sequence, a figure that reflects just how complex it is to rebuild a major interstate corridor while keeping traffic moving, creating a safe work area and maintaining access to downtown Cincinnati and Covington.
What looks like multiple projects happening at once is, in fact, one well-planned sequence working as intended.
