“We, Cincinnati, Toledo and Detroit, will be the first to tell you that we are still manufacturing towns,” Parker said. “We are still a manufacturing sector in western Ohio, and manufacturing means you need to bring in raw materials, and you need to ship out hopefully something that’s reasonably manufactured and complete.”
Years ago, Dayton’s chamber teamed its counterparts along the interstate to resolve three significant I-75 choke points: Toledo’s Maumee River Bridge; the so-called former “malfunction junction” in downtown Dayton; and Brent Spence Bridge.
“I think that’s common sense,” Jim Blount, Butler County historian and volunteer chairman of the Butler County Transportation Improvement District, said about tolls. “It’s the only way I see that it could be done.”
The aging span conveys Interstates 71 and 75 across the river between Cincinnati and Covington, Ky. Latest estimate of the climbing cost: $2.6 billion. The issue of tolls has been particularly controversial in Northern Kentucky, and Kentucky owns the bridge. Tolls are seen as a way to finance private investment in the project.
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“The federal government’s not going to give that much money,” Blount said. “They’ll come in for their share, but that’s usually been about 10 percent of a project, and even that’s hard to get.”
“I’m of the opinion that the Brent Spence Bridge is part of Butler County’s transportation system,” Blount added.
The survey, conducted in late May, was of people who voted in the November 2016 election. It included residents as far north as Butler and Warren counties, and as far south as Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties in Kentucky, as well as Indiana’s Dearborn County.
Parker said Dayton’s chamber supports the tolls with conditions:
- There should be EZ passes that Ohio and Kentucky residents, plus possibly high-volume users, can use to drive down their toll costs so they aren't "gouged" by tolls. Why multiple users? "You've got auto (manufacturer) folks in Detroit that are using it to go to Kentucky, and vice versa, and all parts south and north, so you've got to be reasonable if you want commerce to continue," Parker said.
- Tolls should not be higher than $1, and technology should be used to its maximum to keep traffic flowing as efficiently as possible through the bridge area.
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