the brent spence bridge

Downtown Cincinnati sits right on the river, which means that all communters (basically) drive over a bridge to get to and from town, since we like to call Newport, KY Cincy as well.  My husband drives from the northern end of 275 down into KY multple times a week.

The other day I drove down to see him at work, and it took me 2 hours!  (should have been 30 minutes) This is because the biggest, most important roadway (this bridge where two major highways combine) was down to one lane.

Last week he was talking to me on his blue tooth when i hear Sh*t! then silence.  He was fine, but apparently a car stopped right in front of him!  This is a huge bridge, no reason for stopping!  Well, there was a reason.  Part of the upper deck (for southbound traffic) dropped through and onto the lower deck (for northbound traffic) dropping tons of debris.  My hubby just missed getting his car smashed, and missed the closure of the bridge while cars where on it!  More on that story>>here

This week a car broke down on the southbound deck.  A good Samaritan stopped to help the guy out.  He was hit by a car and sent over the bridge, by Friday evening, the body had still not been found.  **update: The body was found Saturday Morning, and the man's name has been released- no charges have been made** More info >> HERE

They also close this bridge every night and every weekend to work on it.  Why- well I'll let Wiki speak for me on that one: The Brent Spence Bridge is one of the 15 major interstate bridges the federal government has labeled "functionally obsolete" and unsafe.^[1] Motorists are five times more likely to have an accident on the bridge than on other interstate roadways in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.^[3] The American highway Users Alliance ranks it as one of the 24 worst highway bottlenecks in the United States.<sup>[1]

Friends, be safe.  And city- let's keep up the work on getting these disasters taken care of.</sup>