Go Green Campaign News

Critics rip aspects of Ohio River Bridges Project plan

Federal agencies collecting comments

By Sean Rose - August 10, 2010

Dozens of people voiced concerns and objections over the Ohio River Bridges Project to federal transportation officials at a public meeting Tuesday evening.

Nearly all the comments were critical, ranging from a demand for no tolls to pay for bridges to calls for revamping the $4.1billion project, which calls for a new bridge downtown and in eastern Jefferson County as well as reconfiguring the Spaghetti Junction interchange.

“We're getting ready to pay for a monumental mistake,” said Martina Kunnecke, president of the board of directors of Neighborhood Planning and Preservation Inc. “It's environmentally reckless; it's fiscally irresponsible, what we're getting ready to do to this community.”

The meeting, held by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration at the South Louisville Community Center, is required every four years in communities of more than 200,000 people to hear public comments about transportation planning.

Most residents in attendance called for greater investment in public transit rather than a focus on roads, and many advocated for the Ohio River Bridges Project to be done in stages.

Kunnecke said a bridge in eastern Jefferson County was needed, but other parts of the project will not serve the greater community, particularly those who are dependent on public transit.

“It's never too late to turn a runaway train around, and I think that's what you're hearing today,” she told the federal officials.

Others objected to the reconfiguration of Spaghetti Junction, which would add additional lanes to Interstate 64 over Waterfront Park.

“We are destroying what has become the gem, the jewel of the Metro Parks system,” said Louisville resident David Blank.

Shawn Reilly, co-founder of the group Say No to Bridge Tolls, said the current project should model itself after a two-bridge Mississippi River project that Missouri and Illinois are working on in two phases.

“I say let's divide this project … and not use tolls that will divide our community, because tolling our existing bridges to pay for new ones is an epic mistake,” Reilly said.

Not everyone agreed.
The Rev. Gregory Moore said he travels from his Old Louisville home to work in Indiana at North Vernon Presbyterian Church. The former San Francisco resident said that $6 tolls over bridges in that city haven't divided that community.

“The people of San Francisco have not been cut off because there's a toll bridge,” said Moore, who added that he opposes the entire Ohio River Bridges Project but would like to see tolls fund them if it goes forward.

The imbalance of funding between roads and public transportation was the other primary concern voiced.

Many said the bridges project wouldn't be needed if public transportation were a higher priority.

Curtis Stauffer, a new Louisville resident who works for the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, said public transit in Louisville lags behind other cities, harming poorer communities and businesses.

“My impression as a new resident of this city is we have a fully inadequate public transit system,” said Stauffer, who referenced mayoral candidates calling for Louisville to take steps to becoming a world-class city.

“If you want to make this place a world-class, competitive city, you have to have an equitable, fully funded and fully developed public transit system.”

Independent mayoral candidate Jackie Green, the only candidate who attended the meeting, has advocated developing public transit before pursuing additional bridges throughout his campaign.

“The public transit system will inform us if we need either bridge,” he said.

All the comments gathered by federal officials will be included in a report issued in about three months.

Additional comments about transportation issues in Louisville will be collected for the next 30 days and can be mailed to: Gregory D. Rawlings, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration — Kentucky Division, 330 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601-1981.

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