Brent Spence Bridge: Biden infrastructure proposal includes money for 10 most 'economically significant bridges.'

President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan being announced today includes money to fix the "ten most economically significant bridges" in the nation. 

That may be good news for efforts to build a new $2.5 billion Ohio River crossing next to the Brent Spence bridge. Functionally obsolete, the Brent Spence Bridge's importance was driven home last year when a truck fire forced it to close for six weeks following a truck fire. 

The administration did not release a list of the 10 bridges, and White House officials did not immediately respond to questions.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, during a visit to Northern Kentucky on Wednesday, said hasn't seen the bill and doesn't know whether the Brent Spence Bridge would be in it. Though he would be surprised if it wasn't. 

"If there is any project in America that is eligible, this would be it," McConnell said. "And somewhere in the bowels of this multi-trillion dollar proposal that the president is going to offer today, there's hopefully a solution."

But McConnell said he won't likely support a bill he characterized as a "Trojan Horse" for increased taxes and spending. 

"Whether that’s part of an overall package I can support, I can tell you if it’s going to have massive tax increases and trillions more added to the national debt, not likely," McConnell said.

The Brent Spence Bridge is one of the busiest trucking routes in the United States, carrying more than $1 billion worth of freight every day and more than $400 billion worth of freight every year. That freight goes all around the world, said Mark Policinski, Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, so if a truck gets delayed here, there are going to be ripples. 

The Brent Spence Bridge is a lynchpin on the I-75 trade corridor, which stretches from Miami to Michigan.

But the bridge also connects with the I-70 corridor, the I-74 corridor and the I-65 corridor. The Brent Spence Bridge Corridor website says the bridge connects traffic to 10 states, including Ohio and Kentucky.  

More:The project no one can get done: A new bridge between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

“It is recognized by every transportation expert in this country that the Brent Spence Bridge is nationally significant,”  Policinski told The Enquirer in 2020.    “There is no argument that this is just a local bridge. It is a bridge of national significance."

The bridge is functionally obsolete, carrying about twice as many vehicles per day as it was designed to carry. It has no shoulders and its lanes are narrow; traffic back-ups are common. 

More:Covington mayor calls Brent Spence Bridge project 'existential threat' to the city

 For decades politicians have touted efforts to add a new bridge across the Ohio River.  Former President Obama used the bridge as a backdrop to tout his own infrastructure plan. 

Biden's plan too is a long way from reality. It would require an increase in corporate taxes and will have to make it through a closely divided Congress.