A Day Late And A Dollar Short

A groundbreaking ceremony was held last week for construction of a new bridge that will span the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky carrying traffic on Interstates 71 and 75.

It will replace the Brent Spence Bridge that has carried interstate traffic through that corridor since 1963.

The new bridge is projected to cost over $4 billion.

This bridge project has been talked about for years.

In fact, I wrote about it in 2012 when then President Obama was using it as the type of project that could benefit from the infrastructure package he was trying to get through Congress.

Obama referred to the Brent Spence Bridge as a "broken down" bridge that people "were having to drive an hour and a half of extra commuting just to get across the Ohio River."

Of course, none of that was true.

The bridge is not broken down. It has decades of life left in it.

In fact, the Brent Spence Bridge will continue to be used after the new span is completed. It will be repurposed for local traffic,

There are backups in rush hour onto the bridge but it has far less congestion than many major traffic arteries in other big cities I have visited.

No one is certainly driving an hour out of their way in their commute to avoid it.

It is true the bridge was originally designed to carry 85,000 vehicles and in the Obama years it was approaching 180,000 cars and trucks per day.

However,  traffic over the bridge today is actually seeing less traffic than it was 15 years ago.

None of the projections about future traffic on the bridge have turned out to be accurate.

Source: https://x.com/bradleywthomas/status/2054558613222396251

The bridge project was also not "shovel ready" as Obama liked to say about much of the infrastructure spending he was promoting during his administration.

We are 15 years beyond when Obama visited Cincinnati and used the Brent Spence Bridge as a backdrop in promoting his infrastructure stimulus package.

It is still standing and actually has less traffic on it today than it did 15 years ago.

What I find most interesting is the cost.

$4+ billion!!!

How much did the original bridge cost that was opened in 1963?

$10 million.

Just since Obama visited Cincinnati the cost of the project has risen from $2.5 billion to over $4 billion.

How does a bridge that cost $10 million 60 years ago come to cost over $4 billion today? That is a 400,000% increase. Have steel and concrete costs increased that much? How about labor costs? It is not even close.

Adjusting merely for the consumer price index that $10 million bridge in 1963 would cost $110 million today. That is a long way from $4+ billion. Where are all the extra costs coming from?

A big part of the reason is clearly related to the enormous amount of regulations that any major infrastructure or capital project must adhere to today compared to 1963. 

Environmental impact studies, urban impact studies, minority hiring regulations, wage and hour rules, OSHA regulations and many more. 

Many of these government regulations are important and well meaning. However, we need to fully understand the burden of these costs on our economy. The benefits as well as the costs. 

There are also opportunity costs involved in a project as large as this Ohio River bridge project.

The federal government has provided a grant of $1.6 billion for the project but Ohio's share is estimated to be at least $1.5 billion with Kentucky making up the remainder.

Considering that Ohio spends about $2.5 billion per year on all road projects in the state (excluding federal dollars) that sum will absorb a good size share of the entire road budget in Ohio for the next several years.

It is obviously one of the reasons that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recently stated he is opposed to providing a gas tax holiday as other states (including neighboring Kentucky and Indiana) have done to try to alleviate some of the pain of recent gasoline prices as the pump.

Source: https://www.wlwt.com/article/andy-beshear-mike-dewine-ohio-kentucky-gas-tax/71233931

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has signed an emergency regulation to suspend a pending increase in the state's gas tax and is proposing a 10-cent reduction, citing the impact of the U.S. war with Iran on fuel prices.

Across the river in Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine has taken a different stance, stating he does not support freezing or cutting Ohio's gas tax despite acknowledging the financial strain on residents.

"It's a big, big shock," DeWine said, referring to rising fuel costs.

DeWine explained that inflation has reduced the value of the gas tax by 30% compared to six years ago, "which simply means that the money doesn't go nearly, nearly as far."

"These are always tough choices. But the answer is, I think it would be a very grave disservice to the people of the state of Ohio to suspend that user tax," DeWine said.

He added, "I think Ohioans would feel the pain of that in the months ahead as our roads deteriorated."

For context, Ohio's gas tax is 38.5 cents per gallon.

Indiana is 59.3 cents per gallon but has been reduced to zero until at least June 7, 2026.

Kentucky is 26.4 cents (currently reduced to 16.4 cents).

DeWine says Ohio cannot afford a temporary gas tax holiday to pay for a $4 billion bridge but he apparently was fine with what appears to be billions of dollars in Medicaid fraud that seem to have been centered on Somalian immigrants that was going on right under his nose in Columbus, Ohio.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6395009476112

For context, Ohio spends about $40 billion per year on Medicaid.

If fraud only accounts for 5% of the total Medicaid spend, that is almost equal to what state tax dollars go to roads annually in Ohio

Meanwhile, Governor DeWine says that Ohio taxpayers should not be concerned with the reports of fraud since he announced this week that new fraud  prevention initiatives are being implemented that have been "LONG IN DEVELOPMENT".

He claims this will enhance Ohio's nation-leading work in protecting taxpayer funds from those trying to defraud the State.

The question is why were these initiatives LONG IN DEVELOPMENT but never got to the point of DEPLOYMENT until an independent journalist did his own investigation into the fraud that apparently has bee ongoing for a number of years.?

The bridge construction and the Medicaid fraud in Ohio tell the same story.

The bridge project made more sense 15 years ago when traffic was heavier than it is today.

The project also only got more expensive in the intervening years.

Investigating Medicaid fraud after billions of dollars have already been stolen (and money that could have been used for education, highway projects, etc) doesn't make me feel better as an Ohio taxpayer.

When it comes to government providing what we need, how is it that the solutions almost always end up being a day late and a dollar short?