The U.S. Department of Transportation has denied a $25 million request for federal funding for the Big Four Bridge project.
Local leaders had asked for the money as a part of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program, also known as the TIGER grant, which allocated federal stimulus dollars to transportation projects.
The Big Four Bridge was a railroad crossing between Jeffersonville and Louisville until it was abandoned in 1969 and its approaches were removed and sold for scrap iron. Leaders from Kentucky and Indiana are seeking to convert the structure into a pedestrian and bicycle crossing.
A new bridge approach is being built in Louisville and one is being designed for Jeffersonville. The money requested through the TIGER grant would have covered the $15 million price tag on the Jeffersonville approach.
Jeffersonville Planning Director Brian Fogle noted that construction plans for the approach should be completed by October. In order to have the money in place so that the project can be bid out at that time, officials will have to go back to what he referred to as “plan A,” which is to request the money from the Ohio River Bridges Project.
That project is aimed at building two new highway bridges — one between downtown Louisville and downtown Jeffersonville and another between east Louisville and Utica. The downtown highway bridge includes plans for a new pedestrian crossing.
Fogle said officials could seek to transfer federal dollars for that crossing to the Big Four project.
[The Big Four] is a better walking environment than one alongside six lanes of interstate traffic,” he said, also noting that it would cost less and could be completed faster since the base of the structure is in place.
Jeffersonville officials are considering a proposal in which two pillars are constructed on each side of the bridge that support a winding approach that descends downward from the 57-foot-high bridge deck to Mulberry Street.
Louisville’s Waterfront Development Corp. is the principal agency in charge of rehabbing the bridge, a $10 million renovation project in itself. Piers and structural steel need repaired; a concrete bridge deck needs to be constructed; and lights and handrails need installed, Kentucky officials have said.
Mike Kimmel, the corporation’s deputy director, noted that money to cover that work is included in Kentucky’s proposed budget.
“We were disappointed, but we understand that there’s a very limited amount of money and a lot of projects,” Kimmel said of the failed grant request.
UP RIVER
About $20 million in TIGER grant money was awarded for a bridge project in neighboring Jefferson County, Ind. That grant will go toward replacing the aging Milton-Madison Bridge, between Milton, Ky., and Madison, which carries vehicles.
That structure was built in 1929 to accommodate farm equipment and early automobiles. It stretches six-tenths of a mile, has two traffic lanes, each 10 feet wide, and no shoulders.
Clark County
February 19, 2010
FEDS: KEEP ON WALKING: U.S. Department of Transportation denies Big Four Bridge grant request
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CAPITOL CROSSROADS: Candidates struggle with Indiana ballot hurdles
Gov. Kathy Davis had her signature invalidated because she listed her address at “9th” street but Marion County’s rolls had her at “09th” street.
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Underwood man found dead in woods
The search resumed later in the day Friday and his body was discovered about 6 p.m. in a wooded area less than half a mile from his family’s 70-acre farm, said Maj. Chuck Adams of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
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Military vehicles leave Clarksville police station
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Jeffersonville law department still being negotiated
The combined salaries of the two attorneys and a paralegal add up to $221,900, which Harmon called a savings compared to the $239,373 the city has paid in legal bills on average during the last two years.
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Most area graduation rates above state average
According to a release from IDOE, Indiana’s state graduation rate came in at 85.7 percent. About 45 percent of high schools met or exceeded the 90 percent mark and 83 percent graduated 80 percent of their seniors or more.
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YOU GOTTA MOVE: Parkwood participates in Greater Clark health push
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CAPITOL CROSSROADS: Candidates struggle with Indiana ballot hurdles
