If you've ever ordered a bunch of stuff (worth, say, about $4 billion) that you've wanted for a really long time (maybe like, a few decades) and then sat refreshing online tracking as you wait for the first delivery to arrive, you know how local transportation officials probably feel right now.
Just a couple weeks after the official ground-breaking for the long awaited, multi-billion-dollar Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project, a pivotal piece of equipment is making its way to the construction site.
A tugboat called the Elizabeth Ann left St. Louis May 26 with barges holding an enormous crane that will be used to make the footers of the new companion bridge. The Elizabeth Ann will travel down the Mississippi River and up the Ohio River to bring the crane here. You can follow the boat's path here.
The Elizabeth Ann will have to navigate seven lock and dam systems along the Ohio River, for example, in order to get here. Officials believe it should arrive by early June.
Cranes will be in the water this summer driving sheet pile and building bulkheads from which bridge pilings can be installed. Eventually, multiple cranes will work from both land and water to complete the bridge.
A $1.63 billion federal grant by the Biden administration kickstarted the roughly $4 billion project in 2023. Bridge construction will alter a number of traffic patterns around I71/I75 during the course of the project, which is expected to wrap up by 2033.
It's not the first time this has happened — barges brought similar cranes for the original Brent Spence Bridge during its construction in the early 1960s.
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