GOP Blew $398 Million On Bridge To Nowhere In Alaska: Now Obama Fights For Needed Ohio River Span In Cincinnati

Alaska's Bridge To Nowhere Outranked Cincinnati's Span

UPDATE 2:00 pm -- This link
leads to the official cost estimates for the bridge and approaches over the Ohio River. They were issued by state transit officials 11 months ago. The cost is based on a Jan. 1, 2016 construction start date.

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- President Obama is trying to prod reluctant Republicans to spend federal money on a new $571 million to $668 million bridge project over the Ohio River.  He's in town today making his case.  The existing Brent Spence Bridge was built in 1963 to carry Interstate 75 traffic.  It is now worn out, congested and creaking from 200,000 vehicles that cross every day.  Local officials in Kentucky and Ohio have been lobbying for a replacement at least since 2002 -- without any luck.  In 2004, GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell said a "family fight" between Republicans in the House, Republicans in the Senate and Republican President George W. Bush had held up a transportation bill that was supposed to have funds for a Brent Spence replacement.  Guess what happened?  When the $286 billion highway bill passed, a huge chunk of bridge money went to Alaska.  The Ohio River span got crumbs.

Critics have called the Republican transportatiion bill an homage to the pork barrel.  And that is true -- there were 6,371 earmarks, a trainload of pork. Salon wrote about the waste and calculated the bill  spent $86 on every American, and $1,500 on every Alaskan. McConnell, who voted for the huge pork barrel bill, is now trying to portray Obama as a big spender who wants to waste money and run up the debt with his jobs bill. McConnell was the Senate Whip in 2004 and helped get the pork barrel measure passed. Obama, then an Illinois senator, voted for the measure, as did Vice President Joe Biden, then a Maryland senator. But McConnell's GOP was calling all the shots.  The late GOP Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska chaired the Appropriations Committee; GOPer Don Young, Alaska's only congressman, ran the House Transportation Committee.  He once said he "stuffed the bill like a turkey."  Meanwhile, Cincinnatians kept driving over a worn out bridge, and they still are.

 In 2004, McConnell went to the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce before the highway bill passed and said he knew the Brent Spence was deteriorating. But McConnell refused to say he would seek all the money necessary to replace the bridge. Local leaders pushed him to recognize that it was critical to both Ohio and Kentucky's transportation systems. A Kentucky elected official said after the Chamber session that the bridge was a "commercial artery that is aorta-sized" and that it needed to be fixed. Instead, the McConnell helped deliver a bridge to nowhere in Alaska.  Wikipedia has a very accurate recounting of the history of the bridge to nowhere. Arizona Sen. John McCain ripped the project and said it was a shame money was going to Alaska when other highway projects trumped that project. McCain said a Minnesota bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi River in 2007 should have got the money. He didn't mention the Brent Spence -- it didn't seem to be on many agendas outside the Ohio River Valley. Now Obama is putting it high on the list of projects Washington should fund. It's about time.

A $1.5 Billion Ohio-To-Kentucky Toll Bridge: Will It Cost Some Coin To Cross The Ohio River?

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The estimated cost of replacing the aging and functionally obsolete Interstate 71/75 bridge that crosses the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati is staggering -- up to $1.5 billion. More than 155,000 vehicles cross it daily, and the span is one of the most heavily travelled bridges -- some say it is the most heavily -- bridges in the United States. Transportation officials in Ohio and Kentucky want to build a replacement, but nobody knows yet how to cover the enormous cost.

But a bill filed quietly last week in the Kentucky Legislature by that state's Republican Senate President might offer a clue about where the money may come from. The measure allows creation of "infrastructure authorities," which would have power to issue bonds and collect tolls to build highways and bridges. The text of the measure drafted by State Sen. David Williams is here.

Infrastructure authorities would also have the ability to lease out roads and bridges to private contractors, who would operate them for a profit. Ohio officials are already paying attention to the developments in Kentucky because none of the Ohio River bridges are actually owned or operated by the Ohio Department of Transportation. The river is in Kentucky, and the bridges themselves are under control of that state's highway department.

Two Kentucky bloggers were first to spot the bill last week, and Catallaxy.net immediately recognized it as a way to raise funds for aging bridges.

Interstate 71/75 is a transportation lifeblood for Ohio, and the bridge in Cincinnati is a linchpin to the state's economy. Traffic and goods would move much slower -- or bypass Ohio completely -- if the bridge was not there, or became disabled. Catallaxy said tolls might not be a bad thing:

"A public-private partnership could revitalize these aging bridges and even could result in a new bridge being built over the Ohio River without taxing the taxpayers. A toll is a great way to help pay for repair or new bridges . . .

"Any true conservative would realize that this bill could get the ball rolling for much needed bridge repairs in the Commonwealth without breaking the bank."

The Bellwether has caught whispers that a similar measure may surface in Ohio over the next several months. Construction costs for new bridges are now so enormous that they could outstrip government resources. Tolls are not a new revenue-generating idea in Ohio -- the I-80 Turnpike that crosses northern Ohio was constructed decades ago with money raised by toll-supported bonds.

Some background on the Brent Spence Bridge, as the Interstate 71/75 span is known. is available here.

Ohio and Kentucky do shares costs on bridges that stitch the two states together -- but Kentucky owns the spans.