18 responses so far ↓

• 1 Steve // Dec 18, 2009 at 10:59 am

  The latest official estimate for the project is $4.1 billion, but it’s probably $5 billion by now.

  Thus I remain skeptical.

• 2 David Harpe // Dec 18, 2009 at 12:44 pm

  Ohio River Bridge:
  Two bridges, total span of about 2 miles over a river.
  Time to complete: Over 20 years.
  Cost: $4.1 Billion.
  http://www.kyinbridges.com/project/schedule-and-cost.aspx

  Qatar-Bahrain bridge:
  Span: 13 miles (longest bridge in the world).
  Time to complete: 4.5 years.
  Cost: $3 Billion.
  http://gizmodo.com/5368477/worlds-largest-bridge-to-stretch-over-13-miles-long

  What’s wrong with this picture?

• 3 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Dec 18, 2009 at 1:03 pm

  Let’s see……

  Museum Plaza’s footprint has been cleared downtown, but where’s the building?

  CentrePoint’s footprint has been cleared in Lexington, but where’s the building?

  The RiverPark development’s footprint has been cleared along River Road, but where are the buildings?

  You’re correct Governor, if you clear that land, they will be done.

• 4 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Dec 18, 2009 at 1:08 pm

  The only thing that’s shovel ready is the BS you were dishing out at your presser.

  We borrowed $100 million to buy property to access a bridge that we don’t have the money to build.

  Now if we can just figure out where to get the remaining $4,900 million to finish the project, we’ll be good to go.

• 5 Steve Magruder (I, not D or R) // Dec 18, 2009 at 1:53 pm

  I wonder when they’re going to hold the presser to announce the Grand Switcheroo?

  That’s when they tell us that the Downtown Bridge is going in before the East End Bridge, against all previous understandings and agreements.

• 6 chief // Dec 19, 2009 at 3:25 am

  The only guarantee is they will do the dumbest thing possible!

• 7 Matthew Kuhl // Dec 19, 2009 at 4:08 am

  Will people stop comparing this project’s anticipated budget to other much larger project in other countries! First of all, Qatar and Bahrain have no environmental laws per se, so they can do whatever they want without any thought to spending money to not kill and disrupt everything in it’s path. Theses countries also build these project using what amounts to slave labor from various poorer countries in the region, drastically cutting down on the overall expense of these jobs.

  The biggest difference however is the fact that this bridge was built in an unoccupied ‘green field’, meaning that nothing of any consequence was required to be demolished or remediated. Keep in mind that a great deal of the cost involved with the ORBP is inserting a downtown bridge into an existing urban context and reworking Spaghetti Junction all the while trying to maintain traffic on the highways they are reconstructing.

  I agree with Steve M. – it wouldn’t suprise me a bit to see this money first go to buying and demolishing all the nice historic buildings downtown that are required for the expansion of I-65 and Spaghetti Junction.

• 8 Bill // Dec 19, 2009 at 7:38 am

  Don’t you just like how Governor Besheared talks about the thousands of jobs that will be created by the bridges being built and the hundreds of thousands that will be helped by the building.

  Its that he’s talking out of his rear again. Same thing he was telling everyone for the last couple of years with the Harley plant being moved here, the battery plants, Zap cars, jobs for everyone at good wages. Yep, he’s been a real success at that.

  Just like his retarded attempt at trying to regulate the Internet and gaming sites. Meanwhile, Nero II is running the Commonwealth into the ground both economically and politically not to mention fiscally.

  His new cohort Mayor Happy Pants is giving him pointers on how to operate an incompetent state seeing that Mayor Happy Pants has years of experience in running a city into the ground. He’s just moving up for the fringe benefits and that he can now screw up everything else in the Commonwealth.

  Ernie Fletcher might have been a buffoon and of the religious right but even he didn’t bring about the economic damage, total mismanagement, and incompetence that exists in the Stevie Besheared era.

  Meanwhile, the Commonwealth travels back further in time and economically is further going backwards. One has to question, John Y are you out there anywhere to get this mess turned around.

• 9 jake // Dec 19, 2009 at 10:13 am

  I strongly dislike Steve Beshear. But it’s a bit unfair to say he’s responsible for economic damage.

  Mismanagement, incompetence and more? Heck yes. In terms of almost everything, Steve Beshear has sucked. So badly, in fact, that nearly every Democrat I’ve spoken with – even some of his staff members – want someone else to take his place as Governor.

  He’s absent when it comes to the legislature, so the legislature will work against him. He’s absent when it comes to gambling, so I think the horse industry will/should work against him. He’s full-on stupid when it comes to comprehensive tax reform, so just about anybody with a brain will work against him. He’s sold the gays down the river, so they’ll work against him.

  And now he and his Abramson-controlled crew have selected none other than Jerry Abramson to be his running mate. So about eleventy billion people will work against him.

• 10 David Harpe // Dec 19, 2009 at 12:30 pm

  Matthew,

  Agreed it is not an apples-to-apples comparison. But on the other hand it is unrealistic and ridiculous to basically say this is “just how it is” by saying any comparison to other projects is invalid.

  The East End bridge has been talked about and proposed long before the East End was even populated. The Gene Snyder freeway (aka “Jefferson” freeway) ended into what was basically an open field when it was originally built. The ridiculousness of this project began when the road was not extended past 42 when the Jefferson Freeway was first built. Look at a satellite photo and anyone can see that’s what should have happen. Since that time, tens of millions of dollars have been spent simply preparing for lawsuits.

  Just because certain elements of what they are doing overseas may be offensive, it doesn’t mean you can’t learn from the efficiencies they do have with that type of construction project.

  Grand scheme of things $100M is only 1/40th of the total cost of the project. Of that $100M, a good fifth of it will probably end up going to lawyers and consultants in the ongoing River Fields battle. Or if they decide to switch locations, the same amount dealing with residents in Irish Hills and Germantown.

  Regardless…unless one of the existing bridges falls into the river due to neglect, the project just isn’t going to get done. The traffic problems are annoying – but it doesn’t hurt enough yet to get people to be okay with a tax hike to pay for it. Louisville and Kentucky just don’t have a strong enough economy or leadership to make it happen.

• 11 Steve Magruder (I, not D or R) // Dec 19, 2009 at 6:08 pm

  Jake, yeap… Fletcher was a turd. Beshear is a polished turd.

• 12 Mark H (Not Hebert) // Dec 19, 2009 at 7:28 pm

  I will refrain from grading turds, but suffice to say, you can only polish a turd so much.

  The long-time problem in marketing the East End Bridge is that Indiana has exponentially more to gain from the project than residents of the East End do, while Kentucky is straddled with the bunk of the cost.

  The cities and Jeffersonville and Charlestown have been fighting to annex as much of the Utica area and former ammunition plant property into their tax districts as possible in anticipation of the windfall that will come on that side of the river.

  Aside from some new commercial development in Eastwood and Eastpoint, there isn’t anywhere in the East End that will allow the kind of development necessary to take advantage of the traffic access.

• 13 Larry West // Dec 20, 2009 at 12:12 am

  I’d more likely believe the bridge would be built if Yarmuth was in on the presser. He’s undone and wasted all the money that Anne Northup got for the project. But then, as a member of River Fields himself, that’s understandable.

• 14 jake // Dec 20, 2009 at 10:36 am

  Larry: Prove that John Yarmuth has “undone and wasted all the money that Anne Northup got for the project.”

  We’re waiting.

  That pickled hag didn’t get shit for this city. It was always Mitch McConnell or her staff who got anything. And the bridges project? She could have gotten things accomplished but never did.

• 15 Bruce Maples // Dec 20, 2009 at 4:16 pm

  If all the resources (money, time, attention, work) that have been spent on the bridges had been spent on education and jobs …

  Can’t finish the sentence. Too depressing.

• 16 Joey B // Dec 21, 2009 at 8:55 am

  The east end bridge is a slam dunk as far as need. Anyone who doesn’t see that is far past ignorant. I mean, come on, they know it was needed 40 years ago and traffic volumes didn’t stay at a standstill.

  The I-65 river bridge is carrying 2.5 times the traffic volumes it was designed to carry, are we waiting for it to fall into the river with hundreds of cars on it before something is done. And the Junction is obsolete due to the increase in population since the early 50′s when it was designed.

  Every time a light rail or other public transit study has been done it showed it would need to be “held up” with federal, state and local taxes because ridership would be so low. We already have public transit and have had for many decades. It has low ridership and must be supported with tax dollars to the tune of tens of millions every year.

  I realize cloud-in-the-sky thinking is “nice” but get realistic. Most people I talk to think both bridges should have been done 20 years ago and are sick of waiting for it to be done.

  But the few squeeky wheels just have to start “stuff” to keep controversy going for some reason. I guess just to get some attention.

• 17 Bill // Dec 21, 2009 at 12:57 pm

  That’s a great comment about Ann Northup doing nothing. She had lets see, 12 years to get the ball rolling. You’re telling me that 15 years later after her term started, we still aren’t anywhere closer to getting the damn thing built.

  Anyone can see that was the original intent to build the bridge and connect both sides of the interstates. It would make a hell of a lot more sense. Probably even more than worrying about the bridges downtown. No doubt that we need those too with the Kennedy being a disaster zone daily.

  Some people think that we need a bridge to Indiana on the SW Side. Only thing is that there isn’t much over there except for Horseshoe. That and a connector to I 64 in Indiana would complete the road system. But thats probably decades down the road.

  I’ve often wondered why its taken this area 30 years to get a solid interstate system. At least now we’re getting the interstates rebuilt around the city. Now if we could get some more connector roads to fix some of the East and SW traffic snarls, we would be better off.

  IMO, the Gene Snyder needs a lot of work all the way around. Its carrying a lot of outer traffic around the city. The entrance and exit ramps in various areas are too short. Not enough lane spacing. Too much dangerous driving on a good deal of it.

• 18 jake // Dec 21, 2009 at 1:01 pm

  I don’t believe that anyone has done enough to get a bridge built in this city.

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