(The Center Square) – Indiana and Kentucky officials are asking the federal government to provide more than $630 million in funding to help build a new bridge and connect highway segments in their states.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced the grant application for the Interstate 69 Ohio River Crossing project late Monday afternoon. The states want money from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Multimodal Discretionary Grant Program.
The program was established through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed two years ago. Among the projects eligible for funding are highways or bridges on the country’s highway system.
There are segments of Interstate 69 in both states, but they currently do not connect. Under the proposal, the states would create new miles of highway east of Evansville, Indiana, and Henderson, Kentucky, and a new bridge would connect I-69, a highway under construction in several states that, when finished, will run from the Canadian border in Michigan to the Mexican border in Texas.
Monday night was the deadline for applications. The states are asking for more than 11% of the program’s available dollars in the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years round of expected funding.
“Completing the crossing is critical for connectivity, safety and the competitiveness of our economies,” Beshear said. “But its importance extends far beyond this region, and that makes it worthy of significant federal funding.”
Kentucky and Indiana are proposing to find $513.7 million from other sources for the project and have already allocated $265 million toward the initial costs of the three-phase project.
Construction on the Kentucky side started in June as the state is building 6 new miles of the highway. Indiana officials expect to release a bid request for its portion of the road construction project later this year. That work is slated to start next year.
The project’s current timeline calls for construction to start on the four-lane bridge in 2027. It’s expected to be finished in 2031, but officials say federal funding could expedite the process.
I-69 is one of three “mega” highway projects in Kentucky. State officials are also working with leaders in Ohio on the $3.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge Project that will build a new span connecting Cincinnati with its Northern Kentucky suburbs. Kentucky is also planning $400 million in improvements to the Mountain Parkway that would extend the highway in rural Eastern Kentucky.
