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Cairo Residents Prefer Rebuilding Ohio River Bridge

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

A Kentucky Transportation Cabinet official says the public prefers rebuilding the U.S. 51 Ohio River Bridge in a new location, after a round of public meetings in Cairo, Illinois, and La Center this week.

Spokesperson Keith Todd said the other options KYTC is exploring in its long-range study include rebuilding the bridge at its current site and rehabilitating the current bridge.

Todd attended the Cairo meeting and says most people he spoke with preferred rebuilding the bridge, which he said would be best done near the current structure.

“One of the things that we find when we start looking back to a lot of these bridges that were built in the 1930s is that the existing bridges we have are where they are for a reason,”  Todd said. “And that even though the folks that were doing the engineering and design work on these bridges didn’t have all the modern day computers and geo-technical information we have now, we find fairly quickly these bridges are where they are for a reason.”

Todd said a report on the study should be available to the public this fall. Currently, there are no plans for construction.

Whitney grew up listening to Car Talk to and from her family’s beach vacation each year, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to This American Life that radio really grabbed her attention. She is a recent graduate from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where she studied journalism. When she’s not at WKMS, you can find her working on her backyard compost pile and garden, getting lost on her bicycle or crocheting one massive blanket.
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