Next for Brent Spence Bridge project: Goebel Park remake, public hearings
Covington's Goebel Park, marked by an iconic German-style clock tower, will be torn up and rebuilt as part of the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project.
A new report about the project – released as Ohio and Kentucky set up long-anticipated public hearings for later this month – says the 14.7-acre Northern Kentucky landmark will lose about 4% of its space to the bridge work.
"There is no prudent alternative that avoids the use of the Goebel Park Complex," the new 391-page Supplemental Environmental Assessment report says.
The Federal Highway Administration approved the document for public review in January.
It lays out these plans for Goebel:
Removing an outdoor pool, two basketball courts and part of a walking trail.
Replacing about 2.8 flood-prone acres on the southwest border of the park with about 2.3 state-owned acres at a higher elevation.
Awarding $100,000 to the city of Covington to create a new master plan for Goebel, with another $1.3 million to pay for a new aquatic facility, $94,500 for new sports courts and up to $75,000 more if Covington needs a temporary site for basketball. The pool and courts can stay open through construction, the bridge document says.
Installing transparent noise walls between Interstate 71/75 and the park so its Carroll Chimes Clock Tower and other park features can be seen from the highway.
Covington kicked off plans to renovate Goebel in 2018, then paused them as the bridge project moved forward, said Ben Oldiges, manager of the city’s Parks & Recreation Division.
“We viewed it as a real opportunity,” he said, adding that the federal dollars “are definitely going to help out.”
The park complex, located on the interstate's eastern border between West Fifth and West Ninth streets, includes Goebel in the center with a pool; Kenney Shields Park with basketball courts and SFC Jason Bishop Memorial Dog Park, on the south end; and the clock tower, with walking trails, on the north end.
The city will decide whether to build a new pool after meetings with community members, Oldiges said. Goebel’s is currently less used than one in Covington’s Randolph Park and a water park in Latonia.
Those conversations will guide decisions for the courts, too, used most recently for street hockey and soccer rather than basketball.
The hike/bike trails and dog park will stay, “and the clock tower is going to be completely safe,” Oldiges said.
The park is named for William Goebel, the only Covington native elected Kentucky's governor. He served only four days, however, after being shot by a would-be assassin the day before he was to take office in 1900.
The city of Covington bought property for the park in 1909 and added the Carroll Chimes Clock Tower in 1979, according to the city's website. The tower includes mechanical Pied Piper puppets and a bell mechanism known as a carillon. The park, second largest in Covington after 700-acre Devou Park, hosts multiple community events, notably the annual NKY PrideFest and Covington Oktoberfest.
Plans for Goebel are among a handful of new or lesser-known details revealed in the updated plan for the $3.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project. Among them:
About 90 acres of forest will be impacted by the bridge construction project, up from 52 cited in the last plan, approved in 2012 and revised twice after that. Of that, 74 acres are in Kentucky and 16 in Ohio.
About 2.4 acres of wetland will be impacted, up from 1.6 acres previously. That includes two sites in Kentucky, home mostly to cattails.
Peregrine falcons and mussels are among the endangered species that could be impacted by the project.
Three downtown Cincinnati sites contaminated by petroleum and two others with solid waste will be interrupted by construction.
The states will buy and raze three homes in the Lewisburg Historic District in Covington (located at 605 W. 11th St., 606 W. 11th St. and 604 W. 12th St.) to make way for bridge work. Kentucky earlier purchased a fourth home, in Fort Wright, in the path of construction.
Beyond that, the document lays out a price tag and timeline for the bridge project that's been known for some time:
Phase III will come first, running from 2025 to 2030, with limited construction this year. That includes six miles from Dixie Highway in Northern Kentucky to Linn Street in Cincinnati, with a $3.1 billion price tag.
Phase II will run from 2026 to 2031, covering 0.9 miles from Linn Street to Findlay Street in Cincinnati. It will cost $301.7 million.
Phase I will run from 2029 to 2032 at a cost of $173.3 million. That 0.8-mile stretch runs from Findlay Street to north of the Western Hills Viaduct.
Ohio and Kentucky officials have scheduled four in-person hearings and one virtual meeting for members of the public to offer final comments on the bridge project. The schedule:
Feb. 20, noon to 3 p.m., repeated 4:30 to 8 p.m., at the Radisson Hotel, 668 W. Fifth St., Covington.
Feb. 21, noon to 3 p.m. and again 4:30 to 8 p.m., at Longworth Hall Event Center, 700 W. Pete Rose Way, in downtown Cincinnati.
Feb. 22, 5:30 to 7 p.m., on YouTube.
Participants at the in-person hearings can browse exhibits and other information, talk with members of the project team and offer comment of up to two minutes. Formal presentations will start an hour into each meeting.
The supplemental environmental assessment is already posted on the Brent Spence Bridge project site, with comments underway. Copies are also available at the Kenton County Library at 502 Scott St. in Covington, and the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library's West End branch at 805 Ezzard Charles Drive.
Comments must be received by March 8 to be considered in the decision-making process, the project site says.
New comments are added to those already on the site monthly, along with responses from project officials.
The states anticipate a federal OK of the assessment document in April.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How to comment on the Brent Spence Bridge project.
