Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will appear in Covington today to announce the design partners for the new Brent Spence Companion Bridge.
The announcement comes a year and a half after the two governors signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Covington. They will be joined by Jim Gray, secretary Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and Jack Marchbanks, director of the Ohio Department of Transportation.
In February 2022, Beshear joined DeWine at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center to sign the memorandum. The agreement, which previous governors had symbolically completed, would allow Kentucky and Ohio to align on the project. The agreement would show the federal government that the states are serious about getting the project over the line.
At that convention center that day, Beshear said he wanted to break ground on the project in 2023.
The project has since received $1.6 billion in funding from the 2021 Federal Infrastructure Bill. President Joe Biden visited the bridge in January of this year with a bipartisan message about the project.Â
The total price tag for the corridor is $3.6 billion, split between the two states, according to the project’s website.
The bipartisan messaging was hammered home as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Beshear and DeWine joined the president.
The two governors will announce at 3 p.m. at the Drees Pavillion in Devou Park.