Speaker 1: I don't want to be an Americay Scott's loan back
Speaker 1: on the big one seven hundred WLW. Yesterday, O doocs
Speaker 1: sitting down in front of Cincinnati City Council getting grilled
Speaker 1: on the three point six billion I said billion of
Speaker 1: the b Brent Spence Bridge and Brent Spence Bridge Quarter project.
Speaker 1: We're going to kick this thing off early next year.
Speaker 1: That kind of adjusted the timeline somewhat. Mika Owens is here,
Speaker 1: Council member Mika Owens, who sits on the Climate, Environment
Speaker 1: and Infrastructure Committee, answering all the tough questions.
Speaker 2: Miko, welcome back. How's life How are you?
Speaker 3: Life is great? Thank you Bat for having me. And
Speaker 3: it's always exciting to talk about big infrastructure projects that
Speaker 3: are going to improve our region. And so odoc coming
Speaker 3: to By the way, I chair the Climate, Environment and
Speaker 3: Infrastructure Committee. But it was great to have them yesterday,
Speaker 3: and I think it was a good conversation. Yes, we
Speaker 3: did ask some good questions and so I think people
Speaker 3: will be proud, you know, a decade from now when
Speaker 3: we look at this marvel of a bridge.
Speaker 1: Now, hell, it's a long time coming. I mean when
Speaker 1: we started complaining about I think how bad the brend
Speaker 1: Spence Bridge was before you were born, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, It's like it's been going on for a
Speaker 1: long long time and it's mine and overdue. So about
Speaker 1: sixty percent of the design is complete. So what's up
Speaker 1: in the air about that other forty percent?
Speaker 3: You know? Yeah, So the process in which they are
Speaker 3: using to design this bridge is called a design built process,
Speaker 3: and so it allows for iteration along the way. It's
Speaker 3: really a very thoughtful and methodical way of getting to
Speaker 3: the best products. And so you know, we'll continue to
Speaker 3: get to the one hundred percent soon, but this fall
Speaker 3: we're planning to have sixty percent of it complete. I
Speaker 3: will also say that, yes, thank you to you know,
Speaker 3: the Biden administration, the current administration was making sure that
Speaker 3: we are continuing to move this project forward. I mean,
Speaker 3: this is truly an example of what collaboration amongst government
Speaker 3: looks like, no matter what the party affiliation is. This
Speaker 3: couldn't happen without the federal government, both administrations, the current
Speaker 3: and previous, the state government and so Governor the Wine
Speaker 3: has been a thoughtful partner in this and of course
Speaker 3: as a local decision maker and with ODAP.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then bring you up to speed on this
Speaker 1: as you listen. With the Burn Spence Bridge project, is
Speaker 1: we mentioned the three point six billion dollar total cost,
Speaker 1: which includes substantial money from the city to count everyone
Speaker 1: else's we're gonna get a companion bridge that's west of
Speaker 1: the existing Brunt Spence Bridge. Well, let's take the bridge now,
Speaker 1: the Brunt Spence Bridge that we know and hate, and
Speaker 1: they will take that from four lanes down to three,
Speaker 1: so you'll actually have emergency lane and break down lane
Speaker 1: because we've seen some while people die as a result
Speaker 1: of not having that in this whole project's going to
Speaker 1: stretch about eight miles from the Western Hills Viaduct to
Speaker 1: Dixie Highway in northern Kentucky and take a tremendous amount
Speaker 1: of work to get done. It's going to take years
Speaker 1: and years and years. And that is the bird's eye
Speaker 1: view of this project here and reshaping what that quarter
Speaker 1: looks like from seventy five down the Western Hills so
Speaker 1: through the viaduct, and of course the viaduct is seeing
Speaker 1: a redo as well too. It's interesting I heard some
Speaker 1: of the conversation yesterday Mika about how they're going to
Speaker 1: try to limit the impact on drivers and engage barges
Speaker 1: and bringing material which is a.
Speaker 2: Great idea.
Speaker 3: Certainly, certainly, you know, I think the thoughtfulness around are
Speaker 3: not only the design, but also the supply in which
Speaker 3: we will have you know this where the still comes from.
Speaker 3: These are all going to be good, good questions that
Speaker 3: will have answers to I think in the beginning of
Speaker 3: twenty twenty six is not very late in this year,
Speaker 3: but certainly thinking about you know, traffic flow and impact
Speaker 3: to drivers. You know, we're hearing the concerns around environmental
Speaker 3: impact and certainly, you know, if could you be thoughtful
Speaker 3: about those things. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: moving peace fall is better than being idle. And certainly
Speaker 3: as this bridge continues to get built and expanded lanes
Speaker 3: on the huge bridge, you know, it don't help people
Speaker 3: move quicker. And it'll also be very thoughtful about how
Speaker 3: people make decisions from the bridge to get to downtown
Speaker 3: or to get to seventy one. And so I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a real feat of engineering for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we're going to see a lot of
Speaker 1: cranes along the riverfront, that's for sure. And to get
Speaker 1: this thing as quickly as possible it could be cranes
Speaker 1: and barges all over the place, but getting the barges
Speaker 1: and that's a pretty good idea. I wonder what that
Speaker 1: does with surface transportation on the Ohio River. But it's
Speaker 1: not the first project someone's done of this scale. I
Speaker 1: guess in other areas of the country they know how
Speaker 1: to do this and navigate this. She's Meka Owen's council
Speaker 1: member Chair of Climate, Environment and Infrastructure, and yesterday I
Speaker 1: met with o Dot regarding the Brent Spence Bridge projects,
Speaker 1: which is set to kick off early next year, so
Speaker 1: in the cold winter months they'll get busy. Getting busy
Speaker 1: one of the things one of the things we heard too, Meeka,
Speaker 1: and because also this is an addition to infrastructure, it's
Speaker 1: also climate environment. You heard from people who showed up
Speaker 1: community input that we're concerned about, I don't know, opposition
Speaker 1: from environmental groups and transit advocate. They worry about you
Speaker 1: increased traffic and air pollution and this is going to
Speaker 1: disproportionately affect black and brown residents in the West End
Speaker 1: in queens Gaden. We can't do this. To me, that's
Speaker 1: not really a reason to stop the project. It seems
Speaker 1: to me if you're stuck on the brent S Bench Bridge,
Speaker 1: as people often are in the morning and afternoon commute
Speaker 1: several days a week, if not every day during the week,
Speaker 1: don't we have a hell of a lot of pollution
Speaker 1: from the cars and trucks that are sitting there idly?
Speaker 3: That is true, and so which is my moving people
Speaker 3: significantly factor and more efficiently. It's going to be so important.
Speaker 3: But you know, we don't want to, you know, just
Speaker 3: throw away the concerns of people who know the climate
Speaker 3: work that we're doing in Cincinnati. And so I think
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, this has been a
Speaker 3: thoughtful partnership between the federal government, state and here we
Speaker 3: are in Cincinnati. And if there were any major concerns
Speaker 3: about environment polution, I believe ODAC and the OTE would,
Speaker 3: if they believe in environmental impact statement was necessary, would
Speaker 3: definitely be working on that. So we'll continue to have
Speaker 3: thoughtful conversations. But I do want to talk about the
Speaker 3: job impact of this project.
Speaker 1: Please do, because I think that is that was gonna
Speaker 1: Dovetail was going to ask, is okay, we're concerned about
Speaker 1: black and brown populations and air pollution, which we have.
Speaker 1: If you're sitting on the bridge now and not doing
Speaker 1: anything makes it worse, not better. This is at least
Speaker 1: the pollution during construction will be temporary for a long
Speaker 1: term fix. But one of the concerns and is the
Speaker 1: economy gets worse and worse, and money becomes scarcer and scarcer,
Speaker 1: and inflation goes up, and you know, jobs are strong.
Speaker 2: It's not good right now.
Speaker 1: It's not awful, but it's not good and it's not
Speaker 1: trending in the right direction when it comes to employment,
Speaker 1: and like is the fact.
Speaker 2: The matter is people need jobs.
Speaker 1: And I've been a long time advocate for the conscer
Speaker 1: struction community. We have jobs out there that will change
Speaker 1: your life, will change the trajectory of your family. It
Speaker 1: addresses generational poverty. And all you have to do is
Speaker 1: show up. They'll pay for you to learn, they'll pay
Speaker 1: for your tools, they'll get you there, they'll get you home.
Speaker 1: You can make a great life by working in the
Speaker 1: construction trades. And there's countless jobs available on this particular
Speaker 1: bridge in your backyard. I don't feel like enough is
Speaker 1: said about workforce development here.
Speaker 3: I know, I know what this is the most exciting
Speaker 3: aspect of this project. First of all, we have to
Speaker 3: recognize that almost a billion dollars worth of freight comes
Speaker 3: across the Bridgetent Bridge every single day from Miami to
Speaker 3: the Canadian border. We also have to recognize CBG is
Speaker 3: one of the largest cargo airports in North America. It's
Speaker 3: the seventh largest, and it's the twentieth largest in the world.
Speaker 3: And that connectivity just based on the moving of goods
Speaker 3: is so critical. So this bridge, this project is going
Speaker 3: to work fire six million work hours, seven hundred of
Speaker 3: folks that will need to be the boots on the
Speaker 3: ground using their hands to construct this bridge, sixty more
Speaker 3: than sixty sub contractor packages. And so yes, the workforce
Speaker 3: development implication is so real. And so the investments that
Speaker 3: we made are are local labor unions with the urban
Speaker 3: leagues creating that building our futures program, helping people move
Speaker 3: into apprenticeship and really get great jobs after graduating from that.
Speaker 3: We're talking about living wage jobs, you know sovie six
Speaker 3: dollars an hour, and so there has to be a
Speaker 3: great movement of migrating people into this workforce infrastructure. Because
Speaker 3: when we also think about and you may break points
Speaker 3: around you know, economics and people earning money and having
Speaker 3: money in their pocket to pay for the food on
Speaker 3: the people and a roof over their heads. You know,
Speaker 3: moving young people in these forces of professions is going
Speaker 3: to be so key for not only Cincinnati but this region.
Speaker 3: And when we think about the jobs of the future,
Speaker 3: someone which might might be more technology driven, when we
Speaker 3: think about AI, it's working with your hands that will
Speaker 3: always be valuable. And so I'm really excited about the
Speaker 3: opportunities that we can create for people and young people
Speaker 3: with just this project alone.
Speaker 1: And there are countless jobs available. That's part of the problem.
Speaker 1: It's not like it's going away.
Speaker 2: And the demand.
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about there's no good jobs and why do
Speaker 1: we have crime? Well, I can't I when I'm going
Speaker 1: to work in fast food and not make any money
Speaker 1: and I can go on the street and hustle, and
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: It's not good, but it's something. We have.
Speaker 1: These job We need to push more people into these things,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be we got to be more
Speaker 1: vocal about demanding that Hey, listen, we've got a job.
Speaker 2: We've got a career for over here. It's hard work.
Speaker 1: It's not like it was, you know, one hundred years ago,
Speaker 1: where you're sitting on top of a I don't know,
Speaker 1: a beam that's being swung by a crane, eating your
Speaker 1: lunch like they did during the depression. It's much safer
Speaker 1: now we have, right, we have oceans. Yeah, you're talking
Speaker 1: to make them like forty bucks an hour. I mean
Speaker 1: you're going to be making six figures easy with overtime.
Speaker 1: That's life changing.
Speaker 2: That that.
Speaker 1: You know, we talk about generational poverty all the time,
Speaker 1: meek in Cincinnati, in the community, in black and brown community.
Speaker 2: This addresses that.
Speaker 3: This currently does. And I will think that, you know,
Speaker 3: this is one of the things I get most excited
Speaker 3: about what you think about. Excuse me being back into
Speaker 3: city Hall and so developing those pipelines and working with
Speaker 3: partners like CPS, like nonprofit philanthropy, our business community, UH
Speaker 3: and so many others to make sure our young people have,
Speaker 3: you know, really opportunity and hope. At the end of
Speaker 3: the day, I will tell you this too. You know,
Speaker 3: green jobs are also a part of that which the
Speaker 3: Chamber of Commerce, along with the City of Cincinnati, commissioned
Speaker 3: a green workforce analysis, and in that analysis, there's the
Speaker 3: opportunity to create up to forty four thousand and jobs
Speaker 3: many of us are union jobs. When we think about
Speaker 3: electricians and you know soling h flacks and solar panels
Speaker 3: and all of those pieces, but that hasn't a potential
Speaker 3: of an eleven billion dollar economic impact to the region.
Speaker 3: So you think about that coupled with the jobs at
Speaker 3: this infrastructure, this generational infrastructural product is going to bring
Speaker 3: workforce has to be at the top of the list
Speaker 3: for all of us over the next really five ten years.
Speaker 1: She's Mika Owens and she is a chair as a
Speaker 1: city council person of the committee that's heading up infrastructure
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati. Met with O Dot yesterday and what's happening
Speaker 1: is we're moving forward in the Brent Spence Bridge set
Speaker 1: to begin construction early part of next year, although I
Speaker 1: will say probably a lot of the site works being
Speaker 1: done right now, correct, Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's correct, So all of the small pieces that have
Speaker 3: to significant but you know, the pipes run in the ground,
Speaker 3: all of those pieces that have to be set right
Speaker 3: now in order to actually get to the building of
Speaker 3: what we all know as a bridge. So the work
Speaker 3: is happening. We're really grateful that after decades of trying
Speaker 3: to get this bridge accomplished that we're at this moment
Speaker 3: and it took a lot of works from a lot
Speaker 3: of people. Are of there's this community then government, and
Speaker 3: we're just happy that on both sides of the river,
Speaker 3: you know, people are working cooarly to ensure that this
Speaker 3: is a really great project. And I also want to
Speaker 3: recognize that, you know, there are some future implications in
Speaker 3: terms of greater connectivity back to the West End, back
Speaker 3: to what we've known as Queenstate but originally the West
Speaker 3: End when we think about the Fifth Street expansion and
Speaker 3: so those are things that are being built out right
Speaker 3: now and being a part of the design and conversation
Speaker 3: right now, so that when we get to a moment
Speaker 3: of being able to extend, you know, those things can happen.
Speaker 3: So we're thinking about the future even right now.
Speaker 1: Is this a deal where it sounds like most people go, well,
Speaker 1: you just hand it over to Oda. Oda takes care
Speaker 1: all the stuff work with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. But Oda's
Speaker 1: going to how much oversight does the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Where's the accountability, I guess, and how close tabs Mika
Speaker 1: Owens do you keep on what the project is overall?
Speaker 2: From the Cincinnati perspective.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, obviously this is uh this is right at
Speaker 3: our heart of our city, and so certainly we want
Speaker 3: to make sure that we are continuing to be accountable
Speaker 3: results here. Our Department of Transportation Engineering has been uh
Speaker 3: with you know, working with ODA every step of the way,
Speaker 3: and certainly this is not the first time that you know,
Speaker 3: the city and state come together to work on projects,
Speaker 3: and so those relationships are there. I also want to recognize,
Speaker 3: you know, Doublin of the line, you know, being a
Speaker 3: very a great partner, recognizing that at the local level
Speaker 3: there are some decisions that impact us directly, and so
Speaker 3: being uh right at the table to make sure that
Speaker 3: we are again getting all of the great benefits that
Speaker 3: this bridge will bring to our city. So for example,
Speaker 3: you know, we've got a conventional district that's coming online,
Speaker 3: and so when people dig off an accident and go
Speaker 3: through a downtown Cincinnati, I mean, it is truly going
Speaker 3: to be a spectacle. And so that's what we want.
Speaker 3: We want people to be able to not just go
Speaker 3: over the overpass for those that are maybe carrying goods,
Speaker 3: of course, certainly, but we want folks to be able
Speaker 3: to stop downtown, enjoy want folks to be able to
Speaker 3: get to seventy one, want folks to be able to
Speaker 3: get to the West End. That is a huge opportunity
Speaker 3: in terms of what we might reimagine together there. So ultimately, yes,
Speaker 3: we want to be at the table and we want
Speaker 3: to make the decisions necessary and we're possible to make
Speaker 3: sure one this bridge is completed in a timely manner
Speaker 3: and then also you know, making sure that we are
Speaker 3: meeting the budget of this as well. We go things
Speaker 3: are out of our control. Yeah, yeah, I get to.
Speaker 2: Mika.
Speaker 1: But one of the other things the fact that a
Speaker 1: year ago, almost a year ago, we had the bridge fire,
Speaker 1: the Big Mac Bridge, remember, had to be shut down
Speaker 1: for a period of time because of the fire underneath it.
Speaker 1: And the end result is it was on getting mitigated
Speaker 1: traffic disaster on the street surface streets of Cincinnati because
Speaker 1: there's no preparation for something like that, but there was
Speaker 1: no reaction, There was no emergency plan in place to
Speaker 1: deal with something with one of the major bridges is
Speaker 1: shut down, and traffic in some areas went from a
Speaker 1: twenty or thirty minute commute to over two hours. Tempers
Speaker 1: were flying. Fortunately, no bad things really really happened other
Speaker 1: than traffic delays. But I look at that and go, okay, well,
Speaker 1: what's the plan now for surface streets being overwhelmed with
Speaker 1: traffic for the multi year build, for the decade long
Speaker 1: build that's the Brents Ben's Bridge.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's a great question, and certainly that'll be
Speaker 3: something that we can continue to follow up on. I
Speaker 3: do know that there are you know, professional engineers who
Speaker 3: this is not the first time building a bridge and
Speaker 3: assessing traffic and uh, you know, traffic patterns and analyzing
Speaker 3: those things. And so that's also a part of what's
Speaker 3: going into the design process. And so by the end
Speaker 3: of this year, beginning of next year, we'll have more
Speaker 3: ODA will have more information around these kind of traffic
Speaker 3: patterns and the way that the playway Belly Bailey Bridge
Speaker 3: might be impacted. But ultimately, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: you know, this is about moving people very smoothly, not idle,
Speaker 3: not idling sitting on sitting on a bridge waiting to
Speaker 3: go places. They certainly want to make sure we're moving people, uh,
Speaker 3: at the end of the day. And so yeah, I
Speaker 3: look forward to the updates that we'll continue to have
Speaker 3: with odot uh In in my committee.
Speaker 1: All right, I appreciate. I got to get going. She
Speaker 1: is Mika Owens, joining the show this morning. Council member
Speaker 1: Owens chairs the Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Committee and the
Speaker 1: Brent Spence Bridge Quarter project as a go.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: They're doing a little bit of sight work right now,
Speaker 1: but the big stuff you'll notice will start happening early
Speaker 1: PARKQ Q one, early Q one, like January February of
Speaker 1: next year. Miek all the best, Thanks for coming on
Speaker 1: the show. Appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Thanks, got appreciate it. Take care.
Speaker 2: We'll talk again soon.
Speaker 1: I've got to get a news update in because we've
Speaker 1: got some impressing developing issues going on right now. We'll
Speaker 1: find out the very latest there. And of course, one
Speaker 1: of the big developing issues we didn't foresee coming was
Speaker 1: the fact that we go from Joe A to Joe B,
Speaker 1: from Joe Burrow to Joe Flacco with a guy named
Speaker 1: Jake Browning Sandwich somewhere in between. If you're any good,
Speaker 1: we still be talking about him. Nonetheless, what can we
Speaker 1: expect this weekend with the Green Bay Packers and Joe
Speaker 1: Flacco getting I guess he's in town he's gonna start
Speaker 1: practicing today today being Wednesday, Thursday. Friday said, you don't
Speaker 1: have many times to practice, Sarah, at least a snort
Speaker 1: report next seven hundred ww