The New Bridge (Louisville, Owensboro, Cumberland: landscaping, buy, upkeep)

[EclecticEars]

Originally Posted by kytoaz

the fact that a city our size only has three bridges is laughable. has everyone already forgotten shermageddon? If this city want's to compete we absolutely need two more bridges. I know traffic will suck for the next three years, but it will be a great benefit for the next 100.

Agreed on all points.

Originally Posted by JaxRhapsody

Sooo...

I'm no liberal; in fact, kinda conservative. However, this is one truly "for the common good" project for which I'd be willing to dole a little more. According to the feds, there are $7.5 trillion (in current dollars) of transportation infrastructure projects that need to be completed by 2030--only 16.5 years away. I gladly pay tolls in California to go over the Dumbarton, San Mateo, Bay, or Golden Gate Bridge, the maintenance and retrofitting wouldn't pay for themselves otherwise.

Sooo...when I'm in Louisville starting in 2018 or whenever this bridge opens, I'll gladly pay the toll.

[jp1251]

Originally Posted by veggienut

I wasn't so sure about this bridge project, but now I think I am going to regret the whole thing. I don't take the highways that often and one particular main road I do take I saw already is blocked and has signs of rerouting. Back to the drawing board of how I am going to get where I am needing to go in the next 3 years~!

I would say, invest in a canoe. prolly b the fastest way to get back and forth across the Ohio.

[Tintlelli]

Originally Posted by jp1251

I would say, invest in a canoe. prolly b the fastest way to get back and forth across the Ohio.

You might be right. Louisville should have a ferry or a "water taxi" like other cities have on their rivers or bays... It could be used for commuters and tourists. I had a glimmer of hope when they tried the ferry experiment during "Shermageddon" but that wasn't popular enough. Then again, Louisville needs to step up on riverside attractions and shopping so that people would want to take a ferry and walk around.

[MissingIndiana]

Does anyone else think an east end bridge and a smaller scale bridge from maybe Allison Lane in Jeff over to Louisville would have been a better option in place of a massive new interstate next to the Kennedy? Maybe reworking Spaghetti junction along with that?

[tomocox]

Spaghetti is getting a nearly 100% rebuild. I find it crazy that one of the points was to keep haz-mats out of downtown, but they can't go through a tunnel. East end gets a 2000 ft tunnel.... dah.

[MissingIndiana]

Originally Posted by tomocox

Spaghetti is getting a nearly 100% rebuild. I find it crazy that one of the points was to keep haz-mats out of downtown, but they can't go through a tunnel. East end gets a 2000 ft tunnel.... dah.

Yes, the junction will get rebuilt in this project. My point though was to rework the junction without building the massive downtown bridge and adding a smaller one upstream in Jeff to support local traffic. These things combined with the east end bridge, I think, would have been more than enough to alleviate the headaches on the Kennedy.

And yes, the added cost of that tunnel (let alone the other problems it causes) compared to what it's saving makes it the dumbest part of this project. All so they didn't have to cut off a small wooded corner of a large property on which sits a recently designated historic home of someone most people in this city had never even heard of.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by MissingIndiana

I'm all for the east end bridge. It will cut significant time off the trip for people and business in the Jeff/Charlestown/Utica area wanting to access all the shopping and things on the easy side. It will also relieve a lot of the traffic, especially truck traffic, that currently has to go through downtown and clogs things up.

That said, the downtown bridge is a waste of money, will further separate neighborhoods in the downtown area, make a larger noisier cut through waterfront park, and probably cause more traffic problems as all those lanes in each direction have to come to an end as they enter into Indiana and further into Louisville. The exits off the southbound Kennedy definitely needed reworked though so at least that will be happening.

I personally think Louisville needs to get a downtown bridge out of this as well as the East End, for no other reason, than the fact the punishment that Kennedy bridge took with Shermaddgeon. Anything that Louisville can do to take pressure of the Kennedy is a good idea.

[hmorganj]

Louisville does need a couple of bridges. But, does anyone remember when tolls were used to pay off a construction project, then, once paid they were abandoned? What ever happened to that? Now, they are a never-ending revenue source.

[thunderstruck666]

As a resident of Chicago, I can testify to tolls that never die. The toll roads here were supposed to be paid off in the 70's and become free, but somehow there is always more that needs to be done. A hundred years from now they'll still be toll roads.
And for Kentucky to pick Walsh Construction, of all companies to do the work. What were you all thinking? Trying to support the mob by picking a Chicago company?

[RonnyAppleseed]

I thought traffic would be a nightmare once they closed off some of the ramps and lanes. So far no major complaints from me.