By DAVID A. MANN
Not everyone is sold on the need for the $4.1 billion, two-bridge Ohio River Bridges Project.
Kentucky officials say a traffic study that involves one bridge could be released in the coming months.
A Louisville-based group, called 8664, is continuing to pursue a one-bridge option.
Under its plan, Interstate 64 would be removed from downtown Louisville and re-aligned onto what is now Interstate 265 in Indiana.
The slang “86” means to eliminate.
The plan would likely cost much less because only one bridge would be constructed. I-64, which already crosses into Indiana near New Albany, would cross into Indiana on the east side of Metro Louisville rather than the west.
The portion of I-64 that currently runs from the east end of Louisville into downtown would be replaced with a surface-level parkway.
There has been a draft of the plan put together by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, but it has not been made available to the public, said Chuck Wolfe, cabinet spokesperson.
“When we get the final copy, we plan to make it available to the public,” he said.
When the administration of Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear took office in January, the state highway engineer’s office contracted a private firm — Wilbur Smith Associates — to look at the 8664 concept, Wolfe explained.
However, just before it was completed, Kentucky Transportation Secretary Joe Prather halted the study in order to not complicate a debate in the state Legislature about the use of tolls to build the two-bridge project, Wolfe said.
Prather later decided to have the study completed last August.
“It seems to have taken longer than people expected.”
Joe Burgan, spokesperson for 8664, said an open records request for the study so far has yielded no results.
Wolfe could not estimate when the study would be made available, noting that there was no deadline on it.
