Brent Spence Bridge

This bridge WILL collapse before I become a Michael Phelps-​caliber swimmer. Just sayin’.
During the two years I lived in Greater Cincinnati, I did NOT take the Spence ONE single time. I had traveled over it before and heard about the numerous and growing safety issues and just didn’t want to be on it when the next Minneapolis bridge disaster, so to speak, happened. Of course, the Bailey Bridge which runs parallel to the Spence isn’t in much better shape. For example, Channel 9, I believe, ran a special when I lived there about rusted, large bolts just falling out of the Bailey Bridge and being found by joggers in Cincinnati. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Northern Kentucky spokeswoman just smiled and insisted that there are no structural problems whatsoever with the Bailey, much like I say there are no problems finding sun-​kissed coastal property in Saskatchewan.
I would always travel the Southgate or Big Mac Bridges to get into Cincinnati. Newer, not as corroded, and not as neglected from 40 years of Kentucky (who pretty much maintains the Cincinnati bridges) doing pet transportation projects in Nowheresville, Appalachia rather than in its metropolitan areas. Don’t believe me? Study Kentucky politics sometime.
My suggestion: tear down the Spence, build a new 12-​lane span, and suck it up and pay some freakin’ bridge or highway tolls like they do in NY, NJ, SF, OC, and Texas. You should see the tolls I have to pay in California; it’s because our bridges are being or have been retrofitted. Better to be safe than sorry.

This bridge is dire need of assistance. Everytime I drive on this bridge, I feel like it’s going to collapse. Scary to drive at night.

Widen it! Double it! Split it! When will it happen? Until it does, watch it crumble before your eyes. Its in the works, but not soon enough for those of us that drive it daily.

The primary purpose of this review is to warn people of how dangerous it can be!
The bridge is separated into to levels. Southbound I-​71/​75 is on the top and southbound is below that. It can be really tight heading in both directions but I think that heading north is more dangerous than heading south.
If you are coming from Ohio into Kentucky and are heading to Covington, you’ll probably be getting off at the 5^th Street exit. I tend to make it over in time and haven’t had any issues with this exit, but I agree that it is tight.
The most dangerous part of this bridge is entering from 4^th Street in Covington and heading north. The on-​ramp is immediate and throws you into traffic so quickly that it’s hard to get your car up to the same speed everyone else is going in time. Then if you are going north on I-​75 you have about 30 seconds to get all the way over to the left lane. This can be really hard some times and easy others. Just be careful!

I cringe every time I cross this bridge. Mostly I’m headed southbound and am grateful that I don’t have to take the 5^th Street Covington exit that Karina mentions; I take the 12^th Street exit. It’s way too tight for comfort.
It will be interesting to see what the proposal is for replacing this bridge.

The clogged artery of Interstate 75, Brent Spence Bridge is always congested as it is an integral part of one of the busiest stretches of interstate in the Midwest. Built in 1962, this bridge is rife with safety and traffic problems.
North bound traffic grinds to a halt over even the most minor accident because no emergency shoulder exists to clear the roadway. Traffic from Covington merges at the bridge causing an elaborate dance of lane changes and close calls as oncoming traffic tries to get into the right lanes to exit downtown or connect to I-​71.
South bound, the situation isn’t much better. If you’re coming from 71 or downtown and are trying to exit at 5^th Street in Covington, you pretty much have to hold your breath as you cross four lanes within a matter of seconds.
Numerous surveys and studies have been conducted to investigate the problems of this aging bridge, without any conclusive plans for improvement. According to the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor’s website, the National Bridge Inventory lists the structure as functionally obsolete, a pretty scary indictment considering the number of travelers who cross the bridge daily.