Ohio River Bridges Project Price Tag Climbs Again, but Why?

The price tag for massive project to bridge the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky complete with dual approach tunnels, has long been a source of controversy. Another sudden cost increase has one commenter wondering how this keeps happening.

April 19, 2014, 7am PDT | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

Aaron Renn checks in with the “Indiana Big-Dig” aka “The Tunnel Under the Trees” aka “The Boondoggle Ohio River Bridges project”—a 2.6 billion highway project that is the work of the departments of transportation in Kentucky and Indiana. After Indiana claimed to have found $209 million on the project due to design changes, Renn caught a mysterious price increase in a recent news report.

“Remember that $260 million tunnel under the trees in Louisville?…Would you believe the price went up by almost $80 million at the same time Indiana claimed it ‘saved’ $209 million on it through design changes? Of course you would.”

“Yesterday the Courier Journal reported that the actual tunnel was cost $338 million – that’s a $78 million increase over 2010 and a $36 million increase over our max burn scenario in 2012.”

Renn also presents a couple of possible scenarios to explain the loose math, but neither of them are particularly flattering to the state DOTs.

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How State DOT Math Works

Published on Wednesday, April 16, 2014 in Urbanophile