Nash: "Will getting over the river get easier?"

Sensible thinking about the Ohio River Bridges Project -- not to be confused with the position of the Tolling Authority or the strangely quiet One Southern Indiana.

NASH: Will getting over the river get easier?, by Matt Nash

... A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the Federal Highway Administration has recommended the construction of the $2.9 billion“preferred alternative” plan for the Ohio River Bridges Project. This is the plan that was announced after meetings between the governors of Indiana and Kentucky and the mayor of Louisville. The new plan — to reduce the size and scope of the project in order to reduce the cost — was brought about after plans to use tolls came under fire by locals.

While I am pleased that the plan has been reduced — after months of discussion and the insistence that the original “record of decision” of 2003 could not be altered — I am worried that the reductions are to the wrong part of the project. The east-end bridge, which has been part of the interstate masterplan for more than four decades, was reduced from a six lane interstate bridge to only four lanes.