Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine held a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project, a $3.6 billion transportation initiative that promises to ease congestion on one of the nation's most critical freight corridors. Federal and state leaders attended the ceremony in Cincinnati, formally launching construction on a project aimed at improving safety, local connectivity and national commerce across the Ohio River.

The Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project represents one of the nation's most significant transportation transformations, spanning eight critical miles of I-71 and I-75. The $3.6 billion project will see construction of a new double-decker companion bridge to carry interstate and transport traffic, along with improvements to the existing Brent Spence Bridge to carry local traffic to and from downtown Cincinnati and Covington.

The existing Brent Spence Bridge, which opened in 1963, has become functionally obsolete. Built to handle 80,000 vehicles daily, including 3,000 to 4,000 trucks, the bridge now carries 155,000 vehicles, including 30,000 trucks, each day. It is one of the busiest trucking routes in the U.S., moving more than $1 billion worth of freight every day. Downtown Cincinnati's I-71/I-75 intersection, just north of the bridge, was ranked as the 8th most congested area in the nation for truck bottlenecks in 2025.

The Biden-Harris Administration has invested $1.6 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law toward the Brent Spence Bridge. The cost of the companion bridge and updates to the existing bridge will be split 50/50 by Ohio and Kentucky. The project includes improvements to the eight miles of roadway in Ohio and Kentucky including redesign of ramp configurations, and new pedestrian and bike paths to connect communities.

Extensive early work has been completed to prepare the corridor for full construction, including utility relocations, building demolitions and tree clearing, with heavy construction beginning in the spring of 2026. Both temporary and permanent closures of interstate ramps have been scheduled, with detours set to begin on or after Wednesday, May 20, as construction progresses.