One meeting is down and a second is today for the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority, or the bi-state authority.

The group met for the first time last week to handle some administrative functions and present themselves as the group that will help determine a funding mechanism for the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project, with its next meeting set for 10 a.m. today at the Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville.

The project being pursued would build a downtown bridge, an east-end bridge connecting Louisville and Clark County and would reconstruct Spaghetti Junction on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River.

Although Gov. Steve Beshear, D-Ky., said the plan the authority is pursuing is the two-bridge project, leaders of the alternative 8664 project do not consider their plan dead.

“I do think it is still a viable option,” said JC Stites, co-founder of 8664.org, about the group’s plan.

The impetus of the 8664 proposal is to build an east-end bridge first, replace the elevated riverside Interstate 64 stretch with a waterfront boulevard and expanded parkland, without constructing a second downtown bridge.

With the pursuit of the two-bridge project under way, Stites said his organization is in favor of keeping the project together because a record of decision is already on the books. However, the goal would be to keep the project together in order to fund only the east-end bridge and build that first.

After the construction of the east-end bridge — which has a price tag of about $1.4 billion — then a determination of the remaining portions of the project can be undertaken.

The success of the Ohio River Bridges Project as planned is unlikely, Stites said.

“The two-bridge option is too big to succeed,” he said. “It’s basically unfundable.”

In 2007, the initial financial plan estimated the cost of the two bridges and interchange redesigns to total about $4.1 billion — with Kentucky’s portion at about $2.9 billion and Indiana’s portion estimated at about $1.15 billion.

Indiana has its portion of the funding in place, largely because of revenue generated by the lease of the Indiana Toll Road in Northern Indiana, according to The Bridges Coalition Web site.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., believes the most likely scenario in raising the money for the project is through tolls.

“It is very highly likely that our eventual solution here will involve a user fee, which is to say [a] tolling method of finance,” Daniels said at the initial bi-state authority meeting. “This is, in my judgment, the fairest and most direct way to get this job done.”

Tolling is an option that would also remain on the table for 8664 in funding the east-end bridge, Stites said.

A statement made by Daniels during the authority’s first meeting, saying the group “need[s] to be creative” to get this financed was taken up by Tyler Allen, co-founder of 8664.org, who has left the 8664 office to run for mayor of Louisville.

“Creativity can’t just be limited to the revenue side,” said Allen. “Our intention has always been to get a project we can afford.”

As it was stated during the first meeting, building a new pathway across the Ohio River will have a substantial impact on economic development in Southern Indiana.

Specifically mentioned was the affect on River Ridge Commerce Center, which is located close to the planned approach from Ind. 265 to the new east-end bridge, with the approach estimated to cost $190 million.

The importance of the project for Indiana residents also is not lost on Stites.

“Right now, I think we should be in lockstep with Indiana in building the east-end bridge,” he said.

Even with one of the major changes occurring only in downtown Louisville — the removal of about two miles of I-64 — the benefits would be felt across the river.

“It will benefit the entire region,” Stites said. “You either believe in regionalism or you don’t.”

One of the planks of the 8664 platform is to create an open area of downtown riverfront, creating land for development and a large greenspace.

“The recovery, from freeway use, of the Louisville downtown riverfront will generate an increment in land value of around

$1 billion to $2 billion,” according to 8664’s 2007 feasibility review. “Other civic benefits [for example signature riverfront park] difficult to asses monetarily, are likely to become priceless civic treasures.”

What Stites argues will be an improvement to the quality of life for Louisvillians, an attractive waterfront feature for visitors and residents and would be an economic investment in Louisville’s downtown would spill over into Indiana.

“The next mayor of [Louisville] will need to push this project in the right direction instead of burying the center of the region under 23 lanes of concrete,” Allen said, referring to Spaghetti Junction redo.



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COST COMPARISON

• Ohio River Bridges Project (two-bridge plan) — Cost estimate of $4.1 billion

• 8664 alternative — Cost estimate of $2.2 billion



ON THE WEB

• Ohio River Bridges Project (two-bridge plan) — The Bridges Coalition — www.buildthebridges.com; Ohio River Bridges project — www.kyinbridges.com

• 8664 alternative — www.8664.org



SO YOU KNOW

• The co-founder of 8664.org with JC Stites is Tyler Allen, a candidate for Louisville mayor, who has left the group while campaigning for office.