Brown Calls For Feds To Fund New Brent Spence Bridge

Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio says federal funds are needed to replace the outdated Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River in Cincinnati.  Brown says he and other Congressional leaders are working on an infrastructure plan that could include funds for the bridge.  It's part of a bipartisan bill in congress allocating hundreds of millions of dollars for infrastructure improvements. President Trump has made a similar proposal. The bridge has been serving tens of thousands more vehicles a day than it was designed to handle. Time and traffic are causing more rust and cracks, but maintenance officials say it remains structurally sound.  The Brent Spence was designed  to handle 80 thousand vehicles in 1963, and the addition of a fourth lane in 1985 brought that capacity to 120 thousand. But the most recent data indicates the bridge had daily traffic of over 185 thousand vehicles in 2015, which is a near record amount.  There are usually at least two crashes on the bridge per week.