AASHTO Journal, 11 December 2015
The new Abraham Lincoln Bridge between Louisville, Ky., and Jeffersonville, Ind., opened to traffic late on Dec. 6, a key part of a multibillion-dollar set of construction projects to remake and expand the Ohio River crossings.
The new cable-stayed bridge with tall cable towers now carries three lanes of northbound traffic on Interstate 65. Later this month, two lanes of I-65 South traffic will move to the Lincoln Bridge in anticipation of construction to remake the deck and make other improvements on the adjacent John F. Kennedy Bridge.
The broader Ohio River Bridges Project that includes the Lincoln structure has been decades in development, is jointly sponsored by Kentucky and Indiana and managed under a bi-state accord between the state departments of transportation.
On Dec. 5, then-Kentucky Gov. Ed Beshear and Gov.-elect Matt Bevin joined with Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary Victor Mendez in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the six-lane, 2,100-foot-long bridge.
Also that day, a crowd that the bridges project website said was estimated at 50,000 people walked across the new structure before it could open to vehicle traffic.
The events were in the very last days of Beshear’s time in office; Bevin took the oath of office to be Kentucky’s governor early on Dec. 8. Beshear and former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels had agreed to the plan that ended decades of debate and delay for the bridge work.
“The people on this bridge truly believed our citizens deserve a better, safer, smarter transportation system to keep traffic flowing and business growing for our children and our grandchildren,” Beshear said in the ceremony. “Because we came together, worked together, believed together, we built this bridge. Today, we are all bridge builders.”
Daniels, now president of Purdue University, said in a statement that “we are already seeing the jobs effects of wise public investment, and now the quality of life benefits will start to flow also.”
