A pair of Covington interstate ramps will close starting Monday for roughly six months.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet announced Friday that ramps involved in the “Texas Turnaround” project near the Brent Spence Bridge will start on Monday, April 11.
The work was rescheduled from this week.
Starting at 9 p.m. Monday, the entrance ramp to northbound 71/75 from Pike Street will close and a detour route will send drivers along Bullock Street to 71/75 southbound to Kyles Lane where drivers will then access the northbound side.
The northbound entrance to I-71/75 from Fourth Street will not be immediately impacted until closer to project completion, which KYTC anticipates to be towards the end of the year.
At the same time, the exit ramp from 71/75 northbound to Fifth Street will also be close for about 180 days starting Monday. The detour will send drivers to the 12th Street/Martin Luther King, Jr. exit. Drivers can then take Simon Kenton Way to Pike Street, to Main Street, and then to 5th Street.
When completed, the $8.8 million “Texas Turnaround” project will lead drivers looking to access I-71/75 northbound via Fourth Street on a new route. The “turnaround” will take drivers on an access route to enter the interstate at Pike Street using the existing ramp that carries traffic on the southbound side of the highway, then turn left onto a new ramp, then left again onto I-71/75 northbound.
There will be no traffic signals throughout the procedure. The existing ramp from 4th Street in downtown Covington to I-71/75 northbound will then be limited to emergency vehicles only.
The goal is to make accessing the Brent Spence Bridge safer and to ease the congestion that occurs there daily.
