Neighbors Urge Cincinnati Council to Press for Full Brent Spence Environmental Impact Statement

Neighbors, workers and advocates living and doing business along Cincinnati's stretch of I-75 at the Brent Spence Bridge had words for Cincinnati City Council this week, who had just returned from an extended summer recess.

Specifically, they were frustrated that the federally funded, $4.4 billion+ bridge and highway expansion still has not undergone a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), weeks into the start of construction.

A 'slap in the face'

"Overwhelmingly car-centric transportation infrastructure, overall, makes using the federal dollars on highway expansion a slap in the face to those of us without a car and those of us with disabilities," said Vida Manuel, a West End resident. "This being the 35th year of the Americans with Disabilities Act and all that it entails... I don't see it."

The Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project, under its current plan co-authored by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC), won't just build a new companion bridge to the allegedly "obsolete" Brent Spence. It will also widen the highway approaches on both sides up to 16 lanes (doubling current capacity) in numerous locations spanning West End, Queensgate, CUF, and Camp Washington (along with urban core neighborhoods in Covington across the river in Northern Kentucky).

Multiple speakers took the microphone at Wednesday's meeting to lay out the numerous reasons why now is the time to demand an EIS, which active litigation before a federal judge argues this project requires under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. In 2024, a few months before that complaint was filed, the Federal Highway Administration signed off on ODOT and KYTC's claims that this project's (known and detailed) impacts on human and environmental health weren't "significant" enough to warrant any further study or action. Beyond identifying the risks, an EIS will map ways to reduce those risks, like building up public transit and other car-free infrastructure to counteract or prevent the additional car traffic we know comes from highway widening.

"To proceed with the Brent Spence Corridor project as designed, without an EIS, is to say we are, as the city of Cincinnati, OK with worsening exposure to harmful environmental conditions for our disabled neighbors," said Torry Young, also of West End, "while also OK with expanding transportation infrastructures that make it harder for them to access health care and other services to treat the effects of these exposures."

Good money for bad policy

Others weighed in on the project's engineering flaws and fiscal irresponsibility.

"I'm frustrated with this Brent Spence project, not only because we're once again prioritizing the region above our city, but we're doing it when I see our city struggling," said Kennedy Heights resident Danny Guthrie. "We can't maintain our streets; we sold the railroad to deal with decades of deferred maintenance. We routinely run deficits, and these storms reminded us that our sewer system is not great."

Matt Smeal, a Hartwell resident and engineer by trade, read Council a quote from previous project manager Stefan Spinosa, telling us what we've known since 2015 if not longer: "'The way Cincinnati is laid out, the more lanes you build on I-75, the more traffic you draw.' He continues, 'They would fill because of the nature of the traffic network in the region... Realistically, future traffic demand can only be addressed with a mass transit component.'

"I understand you want to trust the so-called experts at ODOT and OKI (Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments)," Smeal said. "I will give ODOT credit as an engineer. As civil engineers, they're great; I don't worry about anything they build driving over it... The traffic engineering is pseudo-science. It's all made up; it's the wrong assumptions."

Smeal cited testimony from public comment given to ODOT, questioning the states' claims that this is a critical interstate commerce highway as justification for doubling its size.

"They're lying to you about it being a freight corridor," he said. "It's not. Seventy percent of the traffic is local. That's what happens when you treat an interstate as a local trip corridor."

Demand an EIS

Despite the range of their remarks, the speakers all concluded with the same request.

"I'm asking -- I was going to be indignant, but I'm asking -- for a full environmental impact study," Manuel said. "It will catch up to us."

Despite what ODOT and KYTC are telling our elected officials, it's not too late to produce an EIS. In fact, this might be one of our last chances to do so. While the states have secured federal funding for the now $4.4 billion (and still counting, probably?) companion bridge, they still don't know how they'll pay for the highway expansions in Ohio and Northern Kentucky (an $800 million budget gap, at least) they say the new bridge requires. Additionally, both agencies have committed to a "progressive-build design," meaning changes can be made to the plan throughout the course of the project.

There's a better way forward with the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor, and it's not too late to get there.