Brent Spence Bridge Designs Down to Six

Preliminary designs being unveiled Tuesday provide a first look at a potential new Ohio River span parallel to the Brent Spence Bridge, with possibilities ranging from an arch bridge similar to the Interstate 471 span to concepts featuring support towers stylishly angled toward the Ohio and Kentucky shores.

Of 12 initial styles, half have effectively been eliminated by a project advisory board on the basis of aesthetic drawbacks, high costs or construction difficulties.

The public's input this week will help to further reduce the field as officials work toward narrowing their focus to three finalists for the $2 billion-plus project, in which a second double-decked span across the Ohio River will be built just west of the existing Brent Spence Bridge.

Among other objectives, planners said the new bridge should be sufficiently architecturally distinctive to become a local landmark, have a "visual relationship" with the existing bridge, be visible while looking through the existing span from the east and afford those crossing it good views of the surroundings.
Those standards led the review panel to reject so-called truss bridges similar to the Brent Spence, a style that most found short on style.

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