The federal grant process to apply for funding for the Brent Spence Bridge Companion bridge is now open.
The Kentucky legislature provided funding for the grant. Now, the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is seeking letters of support for the project from chamber board members and board of advisor members.
Once collected, the letters will be submitted to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
“With the recent allocation of state dollars for the project and all the public support, you would think the Brent Spence Bridge federal transportation grant application would be a ‘slam dunk,’” said Brent Cooper, president, and CEO of the NKY Chamber, in the email.
Kentucky and Ohio will jointly apply for the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant, which has been a top priority for the NKY chamber for more than two decades.
“Thanks to our NKY Caucus, the state of Kentucky has committed $250 million to help compete for the project. Now that the federal grant process is underway, we are in a position to compete for federal funding and hopefully get construction started next year,” Cooper said.
Funding for the bridge has been a saga that started in January when Beshear put forth $250 million in matching funds for three major infrastructure projects, including I-69 and the Mountain Parkway Project. Initially, the Senate budget had only $200 million, but Sen.Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) said they settled on the higher amount after conferring with the governor.
“The governor originally had that number, and they came to us after the product had cleared both chambers and said that it was their belief that would be the most competitive when they put the grants into the federal government,” McDaniel said in March.
At a press conference in April, Beshear approved of more funding for the project when he signed House Bill 242, the House’s biennial transportation budget. Sponsored by Rep. Sal Santoro (R-Union), the budget includes $1.3 billion in funds for the Brent Spence Companion Bridge. This is in addition to the $2 billion expected from the federal infrastructure bill. The total cost of the project is expected to be $2.8 billion.
“The total cost of this is $2.8 billion, and Kentucky provides $1.3 billion of this,” Santoro said in a committee meeting during the 2022 legislative session. “This is over a few years. We are working with Ohio.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that until recently, the federal government had limited ability to give awards beyond a certain level or to support projects with funding from multiple federal grant programs.
“President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our outdated infrastructure and invest in major projects for the future of our economy,” Buttigieg said in a release.
