CINCINNATI — Drivers getting around Greater Cincinnati this weekend saw a number of delays, detours and a major closure on Interstate 75 as crews worked on the Brent Spence Corridor Project.
Watch: I-75 lanes are reopening
Crews began installing steel beams on the southbound portion of the Linn Street Bridge Friday night, shutting down I-75 southbound from the Freeman Avenue exit to the Eighth and Ninth Street viaduct area. The closure was needed to make space for future highway connections tied to the new Brent Spence Bridge.
The Ohio Department of Transportation advised drivers to plan alternate routes and follow posted detours throughout the weekend.
“Traffic is moving, it's flowing around the detour, which is the Norwood Lateral to I-71 south,” said Kathleen Fuller, public information officer for ODOT District 8. “People are also hopping off at the Freeman Avenue exit and looping their way over to the west side and back into downtown.”
The closure came during a busy weekend in Greater Cincinnati, with Panda Fest drawing crowds and President Donald Trump visiting the area.
ODOT officials said there are only so many weekends available to complete work of this scale. They also aimed to avoid major events such as BLINK and took advantage of the Bengals' bye week to minimize impacts.
“We also work around Cincinnati Bengals, the Reds. We try to work around any of the other major events, but we can’t account for everything because every single weekend there's something happening in downtown Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and out in the area, just inside that 275 corridor,” Fuller said.
Despite the traffic impacts, officials say the temporary headaches will be worth it.
The work is part of the larger $4 billion Brent Spence Corridor Project, which will improve connections along the I-71/I-75 corridor and create space for a new companion bridge alongside the existing Brent Spence Bridge.
“When this is done and all the improvements are made with this project, that will be like that first step into all the improvements we're going to see going forward,” Fuller said.
ODOT said progress moved faster than expected Saturday. One lane of southbound I-75 reopened ahead of schedule, while a triple-lane closure remains in effect through Sunday afternoon. The collector-distributor lane and ramp from the Western Hills Viaduct to southbound I-75 also remain closed.
Remaining work includes striping, barrier work and removing the rest of the traffic restrictions. Officials expect all remaining lanes to reopen by Sunday afternoon.
The Brent Spence Corridor Project is expected to bring years of construction, but transportation leaders say this weekend's work marks one of the first major steps toward improving traffic flow through one of the region's busiest corridors.
