Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced Wednesday the state had received two more awards for engineering excellence for the emergency repair of the Brent Spence Bridge after it was damaged during a fire.
The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) awarded the repair project a National Recognition Award as part of its 2022 Engineering Excellence Awards competition, and Engineering News-Record (ENR) awarded the project its “Best of the Best” award after the bridge was repaired and reopened under budget and ahead of schedule in 2020.
The bridge was abruptly closed when two semitrailers collided and burned during the morning hours of Nov. 11, 2020. The bridge, which spans the Ohio River between Covington and Cincinnati, typically carries more than 160,000 vehicles a day on Interstates 71 and 75. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KTC) assembled a team to reopen the bridge in six weeks on Dec. 23, 2020. The bridge was completed and reopened on Dec. 22.
“No one was thinking about future awards at the time. Everyone was focused on getting a bridge that’s critical to our commerce and in the day-to-day lives of our people repaired and reopened as quickly as possible,” Gov. Beshear said. “Still, it’s rewarding to have their work singled out as exemplary. And now, together with our partners in Ohio, we’re equally focused on building a companion bridge alongside the Brent Spence.”
The emergency repair project has also been named a “Project of the Year” by the American Public Works Association, and one of the nation’s top 12 transportation projects in the annual America’s Transportation Awards competition put on by AAA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.