President Biden to discuss infrastructure in Covington on Wednesday

COVINGTON, KY — President Joe Biden will visit Covington, Kentucky to discuss infrastructure on Wednesday, according to our news partner WCPO in Cincinnati.

>>RELATED: Brent Spence Corridor Project moving forward after securing over $1.6B in federal funding

The President will be joined at the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati area by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Senator Sherrod Brown.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell will also be in attendance, the White House announced Sunday.

Biden and McConnell will make a rare joint appearance to highlight nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure spending lawmakers approved in 2021, WCPO reports.

The trip comes after a recent announcement by Governors DeWine and Beshear that over $1.6 billion in federal funding grants were awarded for the Brent Spence Corridor Project to help build a new Ohio River bridge near Cincinnati.

The bridge was constructed in the 1960s to carry around 80,000 vehicles a day. Today, the bridge carries 160,000 vehicles a day on Interstates 71 and 75.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Ohio, Kentucky governors make second funding request for Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project

Plans for the project include constructing a companion bridge to the west of the existing bridge, as well as improvements to the current bridge and the roadway network that ties into each river crossing.

“Once complete, drivers will have a more enjoyable and efficient drive and we’ll have the infrastructure in place to support the booming economy in this part of the state,” Beshear said.

DeWine said that the two states have been discussing the project for nearly two decades. The two governors announced revised plans for the project “based on community engagement and technical analysis” in July. A month later, the two states jointly submitted a second federal funding application for the project.

“This project will not only ease the traffic nightmare that drivers have suffered through for years, but it will also help ensure that the movement of the supply chain doesn’t stall on this nationally significant corridor,” DeWine said Thursday.

Now the the project has secured funding, groundbreaking is anticipated to happen for late 2023 and larger construction activities are anticipated in 2024. “Substantial” completion of the project is expected by 2029.

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