The Newport Board of Commissioners voted during a special meeting on July 30 to spend $62,500 towards the repair and full reopening of the Purple People Bridge.
The pedestrian bridge connecting the downtowns of Newport and Cincinnati has been partially closed since May 19 after a piece of sandstone broke off on the Cincinnati side of the bridge. Barriers have been installed on the bridge deck of the Cincinnati approach to prevent pedestrians from fully crossing the bridge.
Newport’s contribution will help fund the estimated $125,000 needed for stabilization to reopen the bridge. It is estimated that it will cost at least $250,000 to fully complete the repairs.
The Northern Kentucky Port Authority is also committing to raising and allocating funding for the bridge’s reopening and long-term operation. The port authority is a managed entity of BE NKY Growth Partnership, Northern Kentucky’s economic development company.
Executive Director of the Northern Kentucky Port Authority and Vice President of Strategy for BE NKY Christine Russell said at the meeting that the port authority board and BE NKY executive committee are holding a special meeting on Friday, Aug. 2, to match Newport’s investment.
Newport City Manager Tom Fromme said this has been a long, complex, and difficult path.
According to Fromme, in 2001, the state declared the Purple People Bridge surplus, and its original intent was to demo it for $4 million.
“But there was a vision from the city and Southbank Partners that this could be a pedestrian bridge,” Fromme said. “They had seen a pedestrian bridge in operation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and so they visited Chattanooga, and they thought that this would fit the bill for Northern Kentucky.”
Southbank Partners then convinced the state to give the Purple People Bridge over to Newport, and the $4 million was used for restoration. Fromme said the bridge had not been maintained properly for many years—it even still had lead oxide paint and faced structural issues.
“One of the problems that we had with that was there were no long-term plots, and if there were, they were never articulated to me as to the continued operations for the bridge as we moved into the future,” Fromme said.
In 2005, Fromme became an ex officio member of the board of the Southbank Bridge Company. At the time, he said they had $250,000. He said they have been “limping along” for years with that money. Fromme said they spend an average of $40,000 to $60,000 per year, which is not proactive maintenance. He estimates a needed $250,000 a year for maintenance moving forward.
Newport Commissioner Julie Smith-Morrow said she is interested in a comprehensive evaluation of the bridge’s condition because $250,000 sounded like “chump change.”
“I’m skeptical that is going to go very far,” she said. “I mean, maybe it’s enough to get us stabilized, but I’m really going to want to understand about that [evaluation of the bridge’s condition.]”
Fromme said there was a full bridge evaluation done roughly five to six years ago.
Newport Commissioner Ken Rechtin expressed frustration over not having more funds saved since the early 2000s.
“Why, since 2003, have we not raised some money to make this sustainable,” he said. “We know it takes $1 million to paint the thing—20 years we’re sitting around twiddling our thumbs.”
Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. said from 2001 to 2024, the city has remained solid stewards, keeping the bridge open with few exceptions.
The Purple People Bridge has turned into a regional attraction since the early 2000s. In 2005, it had roughly 200,000 users a year, according to Fromme. Today, it sees 1 million users a year, and Fromme estimates that the number will grow to 2 million in 10 years.
“This bridge is really important, and we can’t lose sight of that in Northern Kentucky, and we can’t lose sight of that in our region,” said Russell.
Russell noted the bridge’s role in events like Oktoberfest and BLINK and the importance of the connectivity between Newport and Cincinnati that the bridge provides.
“As we do this, I really want to encourage our region to think big, to dream big, and to be bold as we think about what this bridge can be in the future,” Russell said. “Let’s not think about the money we have in the bank today. Let’s think about what we want to do, and then let’s think about the funding to do what we want to do.”
Russell said there is a bridge opening in Kansas City, like the Purple People Bridge, that has a restaurant on it and a place for farmers’ markets done in partnership with private developers. She said maybe that is something they look at.
“We don’t have any guardrails in terms of what this could be,” Russell said. “I think one thing that we are absolutely convinced of is the status quo is not what we all want this to be. We want this to be vibrant, we want there to be a long-term future and we want there to be sustainability.”
