At a glance
Visit http://updates.kyinbridges.com/ to comment on the impact statement.
Of those responding to the purpose and need of the Ohio River Bridges project:
• 413 respondents, or 36 percent, said constructing the east-end bridge is a priority.
• 330 respondents, or 29 percent, said there should be no action downtown.
• 304 respondents, or 26.8 percent, offered support for the project.
• 290 respondents, or 25.5 percent, said they did not want tolls as part of the project.
•163 respondents, or 14.3 percent, said to build the project as soon as possible.
* Respondents commented on multiple topics so total percentage may exceed 100 percent.
Response on the downtown bridge and its approaches (367, or 32.2 percent indicated a preference).
• The number of respondents that supported the Selected Alternative — 2003, $4.1 billion plan — totaled: 7 or 0.5 percent
• The number of respondents that supported the Modified Selected Alternative — the reduced $2.6 billion plan — totaled: 30 or 2.6 percent
• The number of respondents that supported no action downtown — includes constructing the east-end only — totaled: 330 or 29 percent
Today is the last day for the public to comment on an important document in the process of constructing the Ohio River Bridges Project.
However, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Project Manager Gary Valentine said only “substantial comments” will be included in the final version of the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to be sent to the Federal Highway Administration for approval.
When asked what constitutes a substantial comment he said, “Federal Highway [Administration] decides what is a substantial comment. Agency comments ... things of that nature. If we’ve missed something, we’ll have to be responsive to that. If it’s the comments we’ve heard back from the public hearing process and we’ve addressed those in the supplemental [document], they’re not substantial comments. We’ve already addressed those in the document.”
Chapter seven of the environmental document was dedicated to the public’s comments and involvement in the project. There were 1,231 comments received from the public in response to a series of public meetings, which represented 1,136 individuals or organizations, according to the final impact statement.
While some commenters offered support for the project, or requested that only the downtown portion of the project be built, the majority of those who offered their opinion were opposed to some portion of the plan to build an east-end bridge, downtown bridge and reconstruct Spaghetti Junction.
The plans downtown
According to the final impact statement, there were 367 respondents who offered a preference on the downtown portion of the Ohio River Bridges Project.
Of those who responded, the majority — 330 — were in favor of either no action downtown or only building the east-end bridge. The remainder, seven respondents, were in favor of the plan based off of the 2003 record-of-decision — the $4.1 billion plan — and 30 were in favor of constructing the scaled back version. That price tag is estimated at $2.6 billion.
“Of the 367 respondents, many were particularly critical of the Kennedy Interchange,” according to the final impact statement. “Eighty-three percent of these comments — 266 respondents — which were the same or virtually the same were submitted online by different individuals who favored building the east-end bridge first and then ‘removing or realigning interstates away from Spaghetti Junction.’
The east-end preference
The most common comment received involved building the east-end bridge first, with 413 respondents, according to the final impact statement.
Of those who weighed in on the topic, 330 respondents, or 29 percent, said there should be no action downtown; 290 respondents, or 25.5 percent, said there should be no tolls on the project; and 304 respondents, or 26.8 percent, said they supported the project. In addition, 26 respondents specifically noted the east-end bridge should be constructed without a tunnel that runs under the historically protected Drumanard Estate.
But Valentine said following the most recent Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority meeting that those comments, while accepted for the final impact statement, do not fit within the public comments now being accepted.
“The things that the community wants don’t meet the purpose and need that’s required by the environmental document,” he said. “So somebody who says, ‘just build the east-end [portion of the] project now,’ that does not meet the purpose and need.”
He explained that solely constructing the east-end portion of the project does not meet the purpose and need because it does not address safety issues and traffic congestion downtown, and conversely the downtown bridge does not complete the “system linkage.” He said only in combination do both areas of the project address the purpose and need.
Tolling disparity
Another common theme among the public comments collected for the document was an opposition to tolling the project to cover a funding gap.
The majority of those commenters were opposed to tolls on the Interstate 65 bridge, and about 40 individuals sent emails to the highway administration in the fall expressing concern about the negative affect tolls could have on the Southern Indiana economy, according to the final impact statement.
One comment listed in the statement said, “I stand with other members of this community who are opposed to tolls on I-65. Tolls on I-65 will have a negative impact on the local economy. Public comments are 3-1 against tolls on I-65. There are nine resolutions from all surrounding local councils opposed to tolling I-65. Other resolutions against tolls on I-65 include two from local government associations, [Clark-Floyd Counties Convention and] Tourism Bureau, Jeffersonville Main Street Association, statements from [former] Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan and [former] New Albany Mayor Doug England. Over 11,000 people signed petitions opposing tolls on I-65. Those signatures were collected over just nine weeks.”
The document also listed concerns from Southern Indiana residents that Hoosiers will be paying a disproportionate amount of the tolls. Those included that while Southern Indiana represents about one-eighth of the population in the Louisville Metro area, Indiana commuters will be absorbing 80 percent of the tolling cost. About 40,000 Hoosiers commute to Louisville on a daily basis, which will take $50 million a year out of our Southern Indiana economy annually in tolls alone, the commenter said.
According to the response in the final impact statement, “the incorporation of tolling ... would not result in an overall adverse effect on bridge users, including those in Southern Indiana, because the cost of tolls would be offset by other user cost savings.”
However, the response did admit that there will be a higher amount of toll revenues coming from Hoosiers.
“When considering only tolls as an expense, the traffic data and commuter data show there are approximately three times the number of people who live in Southern Indiana and work in Louisville than those who live in Louisville and work in Southern Indiana,” according to the impact statement response. “Therefore, as stated in the comment, commuters who reside in Indiana would be expected to pay more in tolls, as well as benefiting from the improved mobility.”
Valentine said transportation planners will have to address the “substantial comments” submitted to the Federal Highway Administration when the comment period ends today.
“If there [are] no substantial comments, we move on to the record-of-decision,” he said, referring to the next step in the process of building the bridges.
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