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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