Beshear Signs Bridge Authority Bill

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear today signed a bill creating an authority to oversee major construction projects between Kentucky and Indiana – including the Ohio River Bridges. The bill was approved by the Kentucky General Assembly last month.Beshear and other elected officials such as Mayor Jerry Abramson and Metro Council President David Tandy celebrated the signing at the Kentucky Center. The new authority will handle bonding for the project, and possibly approve tolls to pay for it.Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels joined the celebration, but warned leaders the teamwork will have to continue.“We’re going to have to bring the same resolve, and the very same willingness to be open-minded and flexible and creative, if we’re going to get this thing done," says Daniels, "let alone get it done at the kind of speed we Hoosiers like to operate at these days.”Indiana has had $600-million set aside for its share of the project since 2006. The current cost estimate for the entire Ohio River Bridges Project is over four-billion dollars.