The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet last year presented four designs for a replacement 4th Street bridge between Covington and Newport. But there are some other alternatives.
Mary Leonard lives in Newport and tries to bike instead of drive whenever she can. But she says it's hard to get across the Licking River into Covington safely. That's why she was excited to take a 3-D tour of an alternate concept for a replacement bridge on 4th Street that makes more room for cyclists and walkers. The design is one of three commissioned by The Devou Good Foundation more than 1,300 Covington and Newport residents voted on over the past few months.
"We use the bridges, but very, very carefully because they feel dangerous," she says. "So I'm very much interested in a redesign of the bridge to make it bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly."
State officials say the current 4th Street Bridge, a 1,000-foot span built in 1936, is structurally obsolete. The replacement plans the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet presented last year have smaller lanes for bikes and walkers and four lanes instead of two for cars.
Not everyone loves that plan, however. Covington resident Shad Beard says he'd also like to see more emphasis on transit and non-vehicular options and less on cars.
"I think theirs is overdesigned," he says of KYTC's plans. "You don't really need four lanes."
The alternative bridge design by Covington-based Hub + Weber architects has two lanes for vehicular traffic on steel plate girders and a park-like path suspended by cables for walkers and cyclists. Entryways for walkers and cyclists onto the bridge run underneath the vehicular portion of the span to minimize points where road crossings would have to happen.
Devou Good Foundation President Matt Butler says input the foundation has collected from Newport and Covington residents suggests many people want more options when they cross the Licking River.
"They want a multi-modal bridge," he says. "They want safe connections. They don't want cars speeding through their neighborhoods. They want transit options."
Butler says the foundation will keep taking public input and present it to KYTC.