> SOUTHERN INDIANA — During the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority meeting Aug. 19, board member Sandra Frazier suggested the group should take a look at alternatives to the Ohio River Bridges project. However, there seemed to be some dissension among those in attendance at the meeting as to exactly what that entails.

Frazier specifically mentioned two alternatives to the current plan, 8664 — which suggests building an East End Bridge and converting a portion of Interstate 64 into a surface road — and a St. Louis bridge project — which scaled down its two-bridge project to build a single bridge.

“Proponents of the 8664 plan and others have been asserting that the authority should look to the new Mississippi River Bridge precedent as a basis for ‘dividing’ the project,” said Steve Schultz, executive director for the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority in an e-mail. “[Frazier’s] comment was directed at whether the claims supporting that idea would be explored and addressed.”

According to a press release issued by JC Stites, co-founder of 8664, “[Frazier] announced that the Bridges Authority would be discussing the 8664 alternative and a bridge project in St. Louis that was scaled down to avoid tolls at their next meeting.”

However, the likelihood of the authority considering adoption of either one of the plans is unlikely because it is outside of the 2003 record-of-decision.

 “The authority is focused on delivering a financial plan for the project as it has been defined in the record-of-decision,” Schultz said. “Since the 8664 plan is inconsistent with the record-of-decision, the authority is not considering it as an alternative, despite how Sandra Frazier’s comment may have been interpreted by some to the contrary.”  

According to the response, the alternatives will not be discussed at the 9 a.m. meeting of the authority Thursday’s at Kye’s in Jeffersonville.

“We expect that limited issue may be on the agenda for some future meeting,” Schultz said. “[This] meeting will be focused on follow up actions from last week involving strategic objectives and committee governance.”

The strategic objectives continue to be financing the bridges project, which could include various tolling options, including tolls on Spaghetti Junction. According to an early financial demonstration plan, the tolls could pay for more than half of the $4.1 billion project.

To determine how and where tolls could be used, Schultz took a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with the Federal Highway Administration to determine several funding sources and tolling scenarios. A portion of one funding effort was to pursue federal money through Transportation Improvement Generating Economic Recovery II funds.

The application for the TIGER II money was submitted last week and is in a blackout period, said Christi Lanier-Robinson, communications director for the bi-state authority.

The TIGER II funds would be used to seek a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act allocation. A $1.35 billion loan — which would need to be paid back in its entirety — could be secured through the TIFIA program. But the TIGER money is needed to pay the expenses to secure the loan, which would cover the 10 percent subsidy costs.



Tolling under fire

Tolling has been a divisive issue for many of the groups that are following the progress of the Ohio River Bridges Project

In addition to a recently released survey conducted by CN2, a local weather and news channel from Insight Communications which showed people are not in favor of tolls, the New Albany City Council recently passed a resolution stating its opposition to tolls being part of the bridges project.

The resolution passed 6 to 2, with Councilwoman Diane McCartin-Benedetti abstaining and Councilmen Bob Caesar and Kevin Zurschmiede voting against.

The resolution that was passed, however, is not binding and will not keep tolls from being included in financing discussions.

The authority would not comment on the resolution but Schultz said, “[it] respects the right of local government bodies to express their views. But the authority also believes there is a great deal of local governmental support, as witnessed by the recent vote of the Metropolitan Transportation Committee to retain the project in KIPDA’s long range plan, as well as by numerous letters supporting its recent TIGER II application.”

The CN2 poll was also what prompted the authority to breach the subject of alternatives to the bridges project, according to Stites’ press release.

“With [the] poll showing only 15 percent of Louisvillians support building two bridges, coupled with the overwhelmingly negative reaction to tolling Spaghetti Junction, it’s clearly time to look for better options,” he said in the release.

The bridges authority said it would not comment on the poll, because it has no familiarity with how it was conducted.  

Stites and 8664 are making arrangements for Walter Kulash, the engineer that conducted the 8664 Feasibility Study in 2007, to attend an upcoming bridges authority meeting. It is unclear whether Kulash will attend Thursday’s meeting or a meeting scheduled for Oct. 7.