Bypass, not Brent Spence fix: Good idea or 'red herring'?

The idea of building a nearly 70-mile, multibillion-dollar rural bypass instead of replacing the Brent Spence Bridge gained a new potential and powerful advocate in last week's election.

Kentucky governor-elect Matt Bevin has said the so-called Cincy Eastern Bypass idea put forth by a regional homebuilder should be considered as an alternative to replacing the aging and overcrowded Brent Spence Bridge. Bevin's rejection of tolls and support for studying the bypass puts the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge project in jeopardy of going dormant over the next four years. Meanwhile, the bypass idea could only further complicate the already complex political and financial maneuvering needed to fix the bridge, a key link in an interstate deemed critical to the American economy.

Homebuilder Henry Fischer and a group of Northern Kentucky business leaders and residents may have won a new cheerleader in Bevin, but they still face an uphill battle to gain support from Ohio Gov. John Kasich and local government officials across the region.

"It's a red herring," Warren County Commissioner Dave Young said. "I'm all for ideas, but what's the impetus behind this? A group of folks in Northern Kentucky don't want to pay tolls on the Brent Spence Bridge. So now you want to build a new highway. Really? Do you know how much that's going to cost?"

"The Brent Spence Bridge is the No. 1 infrastructure priority for the region. Period. End of story," the Republican added. "I'm so frustrated. People are only looking at their own vested interests."

Kasich and outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear both support tolls to pay for the Brent Spence Bridge project, and their administrations earlier this year officially rejected Fischer's idea to run a bypass mostly through Warren, Clermont and Campbell counties. But Fischer and his group of supporters oppose tolls, and they have continued to aggressively push the bypass idea to business and elected officials on both sides of the river. The bypass idea now may be winning some support in Ohio.

Clermont County Commissioner David Uible sees no harm in looking at the bypass proposal, and he has formed a small committee of Clermont County business leaders to vet Fischer's plan. Leaders of Lykins Energy Solutions and Burd Brothers Trucking have agreed to be part of the group, Uible said. He has asked county transportation officials to look over the bypass proposal, and the Republican may request to use taxpayer money to fund an official study.

"We're saying let's look at it," Uible said. "This could open up thousands and thousands of acres (for development) and be huge for job creation. I don't personally care if the Brent Spence Bridge is fixed or improved or replaced. For me, it's in another region."

Proponents: New bypass would cost $1.1B

The Cincy Eastern Bypass is a proposed 68-mile, four-lane highway connecting at Interstate 75 in Springboro and eventually reconnecting to I-75 at Crittendon in Grant County.

Fischer has declined The Enquirer's multiple requests to answer questions about his idea since June.

He first publicly floated the idea in an Enquirer op-ed in January. Fischer offered the bypass as a cheaper alternative to spending so much money on what he said were only 7.8 miles of the region's 150-mile expressway system. Fischer started the op-ed by saying: "To toll or not to toll, that is not the question." The op-ed never mentions tolls again, but includes this: "One way or the other, it is going to be necessary to spend many billions of dollars to improve our regional interstate system in the near future."

The bypass would cost $1.1 billion, including a new Ohio River bridge near New Richmond, according to cincyeasternbypass.com, the website Fischer launched last summer. It would take 5 to 7 years to build, the website says.

But top transportation officials in Ohio and Kentucky have said the price tag for the bypass could be as high as $5 billion. It could take decades to complete because engineering and environmental studies are typically long, bureaucratic processes. Bypass proponents point to a new 77-mile expressway near Nashville, Tennessee, as a model. That project, completed in 2012, took 26 years to plan and build, according to Enquirer research.

It costs between $4 million and $6 million to build one mile of new four-lane highway in rural and suburban areas, according to the Federal Highway Administration. That's a construction-only estimate, and doesn't include the cost for studies, design work and land. Cincy Eastern Bypass proponents project it will cost $15 million per mile plus another $100 million for a new Ohio River bridge on the route. But there's little explanation for those costs on the website.

"The bypass (idea) is a dubious proposition," said Robert Puentes, a transportation policy expert for Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. "It pulls all the attention away from the real issue."

Warren County Commissioners passed a resolution on Oct. 20 in opposition to the bypass, the first local government action taken on the proposal. Seven chambers of commerce across the region said in an Enquirer op-ed last month that the bypass is not feasible and the focus should only be on the Brent Spence Bridge project.

Few residents are calling for the need to build a new highway. Several elected leaders in Butler, Warren, Clermont and Campbell counties said they have not heard anything from residents about the bypass idea.

"It would be great for economic development, but it’s the getting-it-done that’s the tough part," Clermont County Commissioner Ed Humphrey said. "I have reservations. The Brent Spence Bridge is a much more immediate problem than the bypass could solve."

Details of bypass, including funding, uncertain

Bypass backers have not presented a way to pay for a new highway. They also say an additional $700 million should be used to make improvements to the Brent Spence Bridge. But even a $1.1 billion price tag to build the bypass would require Ohio and Kentucky to consider alternative funding options, including tolling, Brookings' Puentes said.

"It's just the reality of how things are being financed and funded today," Puentes said. "There's not any help coming from Washington anytime soon."

According to the Cincy Eastern Bypass website: "Like any other transportation project in the region, funding sources are identified based on type of project and priority. Until there is a more thorough and unbiased engineering and economic analysis of route selection, speculation about a source of funds and financing mechanism is premature."

Ohio currently has 26 projects statewide totaling $5.5 billion waiting to receive full funding, according to Enquirer research. Those projects, including the Brent Spence, have been vetted by the state's nine-member Transportation Review Advisory Council and placed on a priority list. Having gone through that process means those projects would take precedent over the Cincy Eastern Bypass.

Other questions also remain about the bypass. New traffic-count data provided by the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments transportation planning agency shows 36,000 I-75 motorists begin and end their trips outside of the region each day. Even if all of those vehicles took the bypass, the Brent Spence would carry around 124,000 vehicles daily – still well over the 80,000 cars and trucks it was intended to handle each day.

A bypass is "not a substitute for the Brent Spence Bridge project," said Steve Pendery, Campbell County's Judge-executive. "The bypass should stand or fall on its own merit."

$100M already spent on Brent Spence plans

The Brent Spence Bridge project has been on the drawing board for nearly 15 years. The states have spent over $100 million in taxpayer money on a multifaceted plan to build a new span, fix the old one and overhaul eight miles of highway in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Washington's inability to step up with money and pass a long-term transportation funding bill has forced local leaders to consider tolls to pay for massive highway and bridge projects – not just here at home but across the U.S.

The Kentucky-owned Brent Spence Bridge is part of I-75, the nation's busiest freight corridor. It handles double the amount of daily traffic it was designed to carry when it opened in 1963. The double-decked bridge, which carries up to 160,000 vehicles each day, is functionally obsolete because of its narrow lanes, lack of emergency shoulders and poor visibility on the lower deck. An Enquirer investigation last year showed the bridge's condition is worsening, but state officials continue to say the bridge is structurally sound and in no danger of falling.

Kasich, Beshear and top Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky business leaders have aggressively pushed for tolls to pay for the project, but Northern Kentucky tea party activists have successfully lobbied state lawmakers to reject user fees. That's left the project at a standstill, and many business leaders have long been fearful of the project's future after Beshear leaves office.

The project could remain in limbo under Bevin, a tea party Republican. He told Enquirer editors and reporters in September that, besides tolls, all options need to be considered to address the Brent Spence Bridge, including the bypass idea.

Neither Bevin nor his spokeswoman returned messages seeking comment last week.

Kentucky State Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, also has been calling for a wide-ranging discussion on how to pay for the bridge without using tolls, as Bevin has. Simpson, the most outspoken anti-toll Northern Kentucky state lawmaker, said the bypass idea could be part of the discussion and he would keep an open mind. But the Brent Spence still needs to be addressed.

"I'm not saying we should put our head in the sand and hope it goes away," Simpson said. "We have to take our time on this, but we can’t drag our feet to where we find ourselves with a major corridor in such a dilapidated state that we then have an emergency."

Simpson wants Kentucky transportation officials to scour the Brent Spence project plans to see if there is a way to reduce the cost. In January, Kasich and Beshear said the states' transportation leaders would take another look at the plans. A March 30 deadline was set to make changes, if possible. But the states still haven't released any updates to the plan, although The Enquirer has made several requests for them.

State transportation officials say because Kentucky lawmakers did not approve a funding plan for the bridge project during this year's legislative session, there has been no sense of urgency to rush their work. Simpson believes the business community's influence has forced the states to stick to their plan.

"The business community, bless their heart, I commend them for their willingness to be engaged," he said. "But once they reach a conclusion, there's a lack of flexibility and it's my-way-or-the-highway. Unfortunately, life doesn't work like that."