Construction is officially underway on a new Ohio River bridge next to the Brent Spence. The project will take years to complete and drivers can expect lane and ramp closures and other traffic impacts.
"This is a massive undertaking, and it's going to be a huge improvement for our city and region," says Tommy Arnold, Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project manager. "We've put a lot of forethought into preparing for construction to kick into gear."
Arnold says mitigating construction impact on traffic congestion started long before the groundbreaking in May.
Temporary closures are expected on both sides of the river, and some changes will be permanent as part of the long-term reconfiguration.
"We've really gone to an unprecedented level of analyzing and predicting where traffic is going to go during that effort, and we've used that data to come up with improvements," Arnold says.
Proactive planning includes using predictive modeling to analyze work zones and traffic patterns, and updating signal timing and lane configurations throughout construction as needed.
Arnold says short-term lane closures will be limited to times with low traffic volume, and mostly prohibited during major events like Bengals games and BLINK.
Updated traffic information
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Ohio Department of Transportation will post all traffic updates on the project website: brentspencebridgecorridor.com
You can also follow along on social media: X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Bluesky.
There is also an option to sign up for email and text alerts on the project website.
The bridge itself is expected to be completed by 2031, with construction on the overall corridor changes projected to wrap up by 2033.
About the project
Officials unveiled the design for the second bridge next to the Brent Spence in June 2025. Both decks of the bridge will be supported by a cabling system similar to the Abraham Lincoln Bridge in Louisville. No steel work will connect the two decks of the bridge.
Northbound traffic on the new bridge will travel on the top deck rather than the bottom deck — the opposite of the existing Brent Spence Bridge.
The overall price tag for the companion bridge and changes along the highway corridor is expected to reach $4.4 billion. That’s up from the initial $3.6 billion estimate, in part due to a 60% hike in construction costs over the last six years, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
Some groups have pushed for changes to the final design of the companion bridge and corridor overhaul, advocating for alternate transportation considerations and plans that would clear more space for development in downtown Cincinnati. They say that while traffic has increased since the bridge was originally built, it actually peaked in 2014 at 171,000 cars per day and has been declining slightly since then. The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, meanwhile, says it estimates daily traffic will reach more than 217,00 vehicles a day by 2040.
Nick Swartsell contributed to this report.
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