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Speaker 1: I don't want to be an Americay Scott's loan back

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Speaker 1: on the big one seven hundred WLW. Yesterday, O doocs

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Speaker 1: sitting down in front of Cincinnati City Council getting grilled

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Speaker 1: on the three point six billion I said billion of

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Speaker 1: the b Brent Spence Bridge and Brent Spence Bridge Quarter project.

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Speaker 1: We're going to kick this thing off early next year.

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Speaker 1: That kind of adjusted the timeline somewhat. Mika Owens is here,

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Speaker 1: Council member Mika Owens, who sits on the Climate, Environment

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Speaker 1: and Infrastructure Committee, answering all the tough questions.

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Speaker 2: Miko, welcome back. How's life How are you?

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Speaker 3: Life is great? Thank you Bat for having me. And

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Speaker 3: it's always exciting to talk about big infrastructure projects that

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Speaker 3: are going to improve our region. And so odoc coming

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Speaker 3: to By the way, I chair the Climate, Environment and

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Speaker 3: Infrastructure Committee. But it was great to have them yesterday,

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Speaker 3: and I think it was a good conversation. Yes, we

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Speaker 3: did ask some good questions and so I think people

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Speaker 3: will be proud, you know, a decade from now when

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Speaker 3: we look at this marvel of a bridge.

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Speaker 1: Now, hell, it's a long time coming. I mean when

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Speaker 1: we started complaining about I think how bad the brend

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Speaker 1: Spence Bridge was before you were born, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean, It's like it's been going on for a

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Speaker 1: long long time and it's mine and overdue. So about

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Speaker 1: sixty percent of the design is complete. So what's up

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Speaker 1: in the air about that other forty percent?

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Speaker 3: You know? Yeah, So the process in which they are

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Speaker 3: using to design this bridge is called a design built process,

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Speaker 3: and so it allows for iteration along the way. It's

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Speaker 3: really a very thoughtful and methodical way of getting to

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Speaker 3: the best products. And so you know, we'll continue to

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Speaker 3: get to the one hundred percent soon, but this fall

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Speaker 3: we're planning to have sixty percent of it complete. I

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Speaker 3: will also say that, yes, thank you to you know,

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Speaker 3: the Biden administration, the current administration was making sure that

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Speaker 3: we are continuing to move this project forward. I mean,

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Speaker 3: this is truly an example of what collaboration amongst government

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Speaker 3: looks like, no matter what the party affiliation is. This

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Speaker 3: couldn't happen without the federal government, both administrations, the current

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Speaker 3: and previous, the state government and so Governor the Wine

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Speaker 3: has been a thoughtful partner in this and of course

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Speaker 3: as a local decision maker and with ODAP.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and then bring you up to speed on this

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Speaker 1: as you listen. With the Burn Spence Bridge project, is

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Speaker 1: we mentioned the three point six billion dollar total cost,

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Speaker 1: which includes substantial money from the city to count everyone

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Speaker 1: else's we're gonna get a companion bridge that's west of

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Speaker 1: the existing Brunt Spence Bridge. Well, let's take the bridge now,

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Speaker 1: the Brunt Spence Bridge that we know and hate, and

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Speaker 1: they will take that from four lanes down to three,

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Speaker 1: so you'll actually have emergency lane and break down lane

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Speaker 1: because we've seen some while people die as a result

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Speaker 1: of not having that in this whole project's going to

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Speaker 1: stretch about eight miles from the Western Hills Viaduct to

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Speaker 1: Dixie Highway in northern Kentucky and take a tremendous amount

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Speaker 1: of work to get done. It's going to take years

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Speaker 1: and years and years. And that is the bird's eye

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Speaker 1: view of this project here and reshaping what that quarter

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Speaker 1: looks like from seventy five down the Western Hills so

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Speaker 1: through the viaduct, and of course the viaduct is seeing

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Speaker 1: a redo as well too. It's interesting I heard some

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Speaker 1: of the conversation yesterday Mika about how they're going to

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Speaker 1: try to limit the impact on drivers and engage barges

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Speaker 1: and bringing material which is a.

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Speaker 2: Great idea.

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Speaker 3: Certainly, certainly, you know, I think the thoughtfulness around are

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Speaker 3: not only the design, but also the supply in which

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Speaker 3: we will have you know this where the still comes from.

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Speaker 3: These are all going to be good, good questions that

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Speaker 3: will have answers to I think in the beginning of

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty six is not very late in this year,

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Speaker 3: but certainly thinking about you know, traffic flow and impact

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Speaker 3: to drivers. You know, we're hearing the concerns around environmental

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Speaker 3: impact and certainly, you know, if could you be thoughtful

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Speaker 3: about those things. But at the end of the day,

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Speaker 3: moving peace fall is better than being idle. And certainly

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Speaker 3: as this bridge continues to get built and expanded lanes

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Speaker 3: on the huge bridge, you know, it don't help people

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Speaker 3: move quicker. And it'll also be very thoughtful about how

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Speaker 3: people make decisions from the bridge to get to downtown

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Speaker 3: or to get to seventy one. And so I think

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Speaker 3: it's going to be a real feat of engineering for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we're going to see a lot of

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Speaker 1: cranes along the riverfront, that's for sure. And to get

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Speaker 1: this thing as quickly as possible it could be cranes

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Speaker 1: and barges all over the place, but getting the barges

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Speaker 1: and that's a pretty good idea. I wonder what that

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Speaker 1: does with surface transportation on the Ohio River. But it's

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Speaker 1: not the first project someone's done of this scale. I

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Speaker 1: guess in other areas of the country they know how

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Speaker 1: to do this and navigate this. She's Meka Owen's council

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Speaker 1: member Chair of Climate, Environment and Infrastructure, and yesterday I

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Speaker 1: met with o Dot regarding the Brent Spence Bridge projects,

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Speaker 1: which is set to kick off early next year, so

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Speaker 1: in the cold winter months they'll get busy. Getting busy

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Speaker 1: one of the things one of the things we heard too, Meeka,

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Speaker 1: and because also this is an addition to infrastructure, it's

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Speaker 1: also climate environment. You heard from people who showed up

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Speaker 1: community input that we're concerned about, I don't know, opposition

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Speaker 1: from environmental groups and transit advocate. They worry about you

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Speaker 1: increased traffic and air pollution and this is going to

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Speaker 1: disproportionately affect black and brown residents in the West End

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Speaker 1: in queens Gaden. We can't do this. To me, that's

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Speaker 1: not really a reason to stop the project. It seems

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Speaker 1: to me if you're stuck on the brent S Bench Bridge,

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Speaker 1: as people often are in the morning and afternoon commute

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Speaker 1: several days a week, if not every day during the week,

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Speaker 1: don't we have a hell of a lot of pollution

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Speaker 1: from the cars and trucks that are sitting there idly?

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Speaker 3: That is true, and so which is my moving people

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Speaker 3: significantly factor and more efficiently. It's going to be so important.

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Speaker 3: But you know, we don't want to, you know, just

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Speaker 3: throw away the concerns of people who know the climate

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Speaker 3: work that we're doing in Cincinnati. And so I think

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Speaker 3: at the end of the day, this has been a

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Speaker 3: thoughtful partnership between the federal government, state and here we

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Speaker 3: are in Cincinnati. And if there were any major concerns

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Speaker 3: about environment polution, I believe ODAC and the OTE would,

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Speaker 3: if they believe in environmental impact statement was necessary, would

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Speaker 3: definitely be working on that. So we'll continue to have

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Speaker 3: thoughtful conversations. But I do want to talk about the

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Speaker 3: job impact of this project.

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Speaker 1: Please do, because I think that is that was gonna

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Speaker 1: Dovetail was going to ask, is okay, we're concerned about

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Speaker 1: black and brown populations and air pollution, which we have.

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Speaker 1: If you're sitting on the bridge now and not doing

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Speaker 1: anything makes it worse, not better. This is at least

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Speaker 1: the pollution during construction will be temporary for a long

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Speaker 1: term fix. But one of the concerns and is the

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Speaker 1: economy gets worse and worse, and money becomes scarcer and scarcer,

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Speaker 1: and inflation goes up, and you know, jobs are strong.

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Speaker 2: It's not good right now.

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Speaker 1: It's not awful, but it's not good and it's not

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Speaker 1: trending in the right direction when it comes to employment,

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Speaker 1: and like is the fact.

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Speaker 2: The matter is people need jobs.

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Speaker 1: And I've been a long time advocate for the conscer

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Speaker 1: struction community. We have jobs out there that will change

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Speaker 1: your life, will change the trajectory of your family. It

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Speaker 1: addresses generational poverty. And all you have to do is

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Speaker 1: show up. They'll pay for you to learn, they'll pay

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Speaker 1: for your tools, they'll get you there, they'll get you home.

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Speaker 1: You can make a great life by working in the

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Speaker 1: construction trades. And there's countless jobs available on this particular

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Speaker 1: bridge in your backyard. I don't feel like enough is

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Speaker 1: said about workforce development here.

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Speaker 3: I know, I know what this is the most exciting

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Speaker 3: aspect of this project. First of all, we have to

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Speaker 3: recognize that almost a billion dollars worth of freight comes

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Speaker 3: across the Bridgetent Bridge every single day from Miami to

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Speaker 3: the Canadian border. We also have to recognize CBG is

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Speaker 3: one of the largest cargo airports in North America. It's

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Speaker 3: the seventh largest, and it's the twentieth largest in the world.

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Speaker 3: And that connectivity just based on the moving of goods

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Speaker 3: is so critical. So this bridge, this project is going

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Speaker 3: to work fire six million work hours, seven hundred of

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Speaker 3: folks that will need to be the boots on the

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Speaker 3: ground using their hands to construct this bridge, sixty more

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Speaker 3: than sixty sub contractor packages. And so yes, the workforce

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Speaker 3: development implication is so real. And so the investments that

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Speaker 3: we made are are local labor unions with the urban

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Speaker 3: leagues creating that building our futures program, helping people move

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Speaker 3: into apprenticeship and really get great jobs after graduating from that.

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Speaker 3: We're talking about living wage jobs, you know sovie six

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Speaker 3: dollars an hour, and so there has to be a

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Speaker 3: great movement of migrating people into this workforce infrastructure. Because

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Speaker 3: when we also think about and you may break points

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Speaker 3: around you know, economics and people earning money and having

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Speaker 3: money in their pocket to pay for the food on

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Speaker 3: the people and a roof over their heads. You know,

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Speaker 3: moving young people in these forces of professions is going

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Speaker 3: to be so key for not only Cincinnati but this region.

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Speaker 3: And when we think about the jobs of the future,

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Speaker 3: someone which might might be more technology driven, when we

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Speaker 3: think about AI, it's working with your hands that will

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Speaker 3: always be valuable. And so I'm really excited about the

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Speaker 3: opportunities that we can create for people and young people

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Speaker 3: with just this project alone.

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Speaker 1: And there are countless jobs available. That's part of the problem.

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Speaker 1: It's not like it's going away.

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Speaker 2: And the demand.

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Speaker 1: Everyone talks about there's no good jobs and why do

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Speaker 1: we have crime? Well, I can't I when I'm going

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Speaker 1: to work in fast food and not make any money

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Speaker 1: and I can go on the street and hustle, and

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Speaker 1: I know.

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Speaker 2: It's not good, but it's something. We have.

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Speaker 1: These job We need to push more people into these things,

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Speaker 1: and it's got to be we got to be more

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Speaker 1: vocal about demanding that Hey, listen, we've got a job.

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Speaker 2: We've got a career for over here. It's hard work.

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Speaker 1: It's not like it was, you know, one hundred years ago,

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Speaker 1: where you're sitting on top of a I don't know,

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Speaker 1: a beam that's being swung by a crane, eating your

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Speaker 1: lunch like they did during the depression. It's much safer

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Speaker 1: now we have, right, we have oceans. Yeah, you're talking

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Speaker 1: to make them like forty bucks an hour. I mean

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Speaker 1: you're going to be making six figures easy with overtime.

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Speaker 1: That's life changing.

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Speaker 2: That that.

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Speaker 1: You know, we talk about generational poverty all the time,

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Speaker 1: meek in Cincinnati, in the community, in black and brown community.

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Speaker 2: This addresses that.

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Speaker 3: This currently does. And I will think that, you know,

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Speaker 3: this is one of the things I get most excited

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Speaker 3: about what you think about. Excuse me being back into

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Speaker 3: city Hall and so developing those pipelines and working with

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Speaker 3: partners like CPS, like nonprofit philanthropy, our business community, UH

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Speaker 3: and so many others to make sure our young people have,

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Speaker 3: you know, really opportunity and hope. At the end of

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Speaker 3: the day, I will tell you this too. You know,

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Speaker 3: green jobs are also a part of that which the

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Speaker 3: Chamber of Commerce, along with the City of Cincinnati, commissioned

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Speaker 3: a green workforce analysis, and in that analysis, there's the

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Speaker 3: opportunity to create up to forty four thousand and jobs

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Speaker 3: many of us are union jobs. When we think about

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Speaker 3: electricians and you know soling h flacks and solar panels

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Speaker 3: and all of those pieces, but that hasn't a potential

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Speaker 3: of an eleven billion dollar economic impact to the region.

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Speaker 3: So you think about that coupled with the jobs at

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Speaker 3: this infrastructure, this generational infrastructural product is going to bring

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Speaker 3: workforce has to be at the top of the list

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Speaker 3: for all of us over the next really five ten years.

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Speaker 1: She's Mika Owens and she is a chair as a

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Speaker 1: city council person of the committee that's heading up infrastructure

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Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. Met with O Dot yesterday and what's happening

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Speaker 1: is we're moving forward in the Brent Spence Bridge set

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Speaker 1: to begin construction early part of next year, although I

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Speaker 1: will say probably a lot of the site works being

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Speaker 1: done right now, correct, Yeah.

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Speaker 3: That's correct, So all of the small pieces that have

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Speaker 3: to significant but you know, the pipes run in the ground,

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Speaker 3: all of those pieces that have to be set right

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Speaker 3: now in order to actually get to the building of

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Speaker 3: what we all know as a bridge. So the work

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Speaker 3: is happening. We're really grateful that after decades of trying

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Speaker 3: to get this bridge accomplished that we're at this moment

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Speaker 3: and it took a lot of works from a lot

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Speaker 3: of people. Are of there's this community then government, and

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Speaker 3: we're just happy that on both sides of the river,

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Speaker 3: you know, people are working cooarly to ensure that this

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Speaker 3: is a really great project. And I also want to

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Speaker 3: recognize that, you know, there are some future implications in

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Speaker 3: terms of greater connectivity back to the West End, back

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Speaker 3: to what we've known as Queenstate but originally the West

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Speaker 3: End when we think about the Fifth Street expansion and

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Speaker 3: so those are things that are being built out right

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Speaker 3: now and being a part of the design and conversation

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Speaker 3: right now, so that when we get to a moment

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Speaker 3: of being able to extend, you know, those things can happen.

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Speaker 3: So we're thinking about the future even right now.

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Speaker 1: Is this a deal where it sounds like most people go, well,

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Speaker 1: you just hand it over to Oda. Oda takes care

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Speaker 1: all the stuff work with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. But Oda's

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Speaker 1: going to how much oversight does the City of Cincinnati.

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Speaker 1: Where's the accountability, I guess, and how close tabs Mika

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Speaker 1: Owens do you keep on what the project is overall?

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Speaker 2: From the Cincinnati perspective.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, obviously this is uh this is right at

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Speaker 3: our heart of our city, and so certainly we want

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Speaker 3: to make sure that we are continuing to be accountable

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Speaker 3: results here. Our Department of Transportation Engineering has been uh

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Speaker 3: with you know, working with ODA every step of the way,

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Speaker 3: and certainly this is not the first time that you know,

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Speaker 3: the city and state come together to work on projects,

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Speaker 3: and so those relationships are there. I also want to recognize,

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Speaker 3: you know, Doublin of the line, you know, being a

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Speaker 3: very a great partner, recognizing that at the local level

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Speaker 3: there are some decisions that impact us directly, and so

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Speaker 3: being uh right at the table to make sure that

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Speaker 3: we are again getting all of the great benefits that

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Speaker 3: this bridge will bring to our city. So for example,

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Speaker 3: you know, we've got a conventional district that's coming online,

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Speaker 3: and so when people dig off an accident and go

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Speaker 3: through a downtown Cincinnati, I mean, it is truly going

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Speaker 3: to be a spectacle. And so that's what we want.

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Speaker 3: We want people to be able to not just go

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Speaker 3: over the overpass for those that are maybe carrying goods,

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Speaker 3: of course, certainly, but we want folks to be able

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Speaker 3: to stop downtown, enjoy want folks to be able to

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Speaker 3: get to seventy one, want folks to be able to

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Speaker 3: get to the West End. That is a huge opportunity

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Speaker 3: in terms of what we might reimagine together there. So ultimately, yes,

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Speaker 3: we want to be at the table and we want

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Speaker 3: to make the decisions necessary and we're possible to make

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Speaker 3: sure one this bridge is completed in a timely manner

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Speaker 3: and then also you know, making sure that we are

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Speaker 3: meeting the budget of this as well. We go things

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Speaker 3: are out of our control. Yeah, yeah, I get to.

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Speaker 2: Mika.

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Speaker 1: But one of the other things the fact that a

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Speaker 1: year ago, almost a year ago, we had the bridge fire,

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Speaker 1: the Big Mac Bridge, remember, had to be shut down

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Speaker 1: for a period of time because of the fire underneath it.

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Speaker 1: And the end result is it was on getting mitigated

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Speaker 1: traffic disaster on the street surface streets of Cincinnati because

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Speaker 1: there's no preparation for something like that, but there was

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Speaker 1: no reaction, There was no emergency plan in place to

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Speaker 1: deal with something with one of the major bridges is

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Speaker 1: shut down, and traffic in some areas went from a

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Speaker 1: twenty or thirty minute commute to over two hours. Tempers

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Speaker 1: were flying. Fortunately, no bad things really really happened other

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Speaker 1: than traffic delays. But I look at that and go, okay, well,

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Speaker 1: what's the plan now for surface streets being overwhelmed with

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Speaker 1: traffic for the multi year build, for the decade long

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Speaker 1: build that's the Brents Ben's Bridge.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's a great question, and certainly that'll be

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Speaker 3: something that we can continue to follow up on. I

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Speaker 3: do know that there are you know, professional engineers who

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Speaker 3: this is not the first time building a bridge and

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Speaker 3: assessing traffic and uh, you know, traffic patterns and analyzing

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Speaker 3: those things. And so that's also a part of what's

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Speaker 3: going into the design process. And so by the end

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Speaker 3: of this year, beginning of next year, we'll have more

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Speaker 3: ODA will have more information around these kind of traffic

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Speaker 3: patterns and the way that the playway Belly Bailey Bridge

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Speaker 3: might be impacted. But ultimately, at the end of the day,

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Speaker 3: you know, this is about moving people very smoothly, not idle,

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Speaker 3: not idling sitting on sitting on a bridge waiting to

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Speaker 3: go places. They certainly want to make sure we're moving people, uh,

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Speaker 3: at the end of the day. And so yeah, I

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Speaker 3: look forward to the updates that we'll continue to have

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Speaker 3: with odot uh In in my committee.

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Speaker 1: All right, I appreciate. I got to get going. She

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Speaker 1: is Mika Owens, joining the show this morning. Council member

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Speaker 1: Owens chairs the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee and the

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Speaker 1: Brent Spence Bridge Quarter project as a go.

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Speaker 2: Uh.

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Speaker 1: They're doing a little bit of sight work right now,

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Speaker 1: but the big stuff you'll notice will start happening early

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Speaker 1: PARKQ Q one, early Q one, like January February of

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Speaker 1: next year. Miek all the best, Thanks for coming on

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Speaker 1: the show. Appreciate you.

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Speaker 3: Thanks, got appreciate it. Take care.

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Speaker 2: We'll talk again soon.

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Speaker 1: I've got to get a news update in because we've

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Speaker 1: got some impressing developing issues going on right now. We'll

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Speaker 1: find out the very latest there. And of course, one

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Speaker 1: of the big developing issues we didn't foresee coming was

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Speaker 1: the fact that we go from Joe A to Joe B,

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Speaker 1: from Joe Burrow to Joe Flacco with a guy named

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Speaker 1: Jake Browning Sandwich somewhere in between. If you're any good,

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Speaker 1: we still be talking about him. Nonetheless, what can we

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Speaker 1: expect this weekend with the Green Bay Packers and Joe

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Speaker 1: Flacco getting I guess he's in town he's gonna start

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Speaker 1: practicing today today being Wednesday, Thursday. Friday said, you don't

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Speaker 1: have many times to practice, Sarah, at least a snort

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Speaker 1: report next seven hundred ww