Welcome to "86-64" a grassroots organization in Louisville, KY promoting an alternative to the $4.1 Billion Ohio River Bridges Project that prioritizes interstate capacity over livability and economic vitality.

Our less expensive alternative would build only an East End Bridge, reduce the complexity of "Spaghetti Junction" and reconnect downtown to the Ohio River. In 2007 preeminent traffic engineer Walter Kulash conducted a feasibility study and concluded, "A simple, common-sense plan that meets the purpose of the Bridges project, at a fraction of the Bridges cost, while delivering vastly more civic quality of life benefits." Read the latest:

From yesterday:

Truck spill on I-65 South Ramp to I-71 ties up downtown traffic
"Traffic was blocked downtown after a tractor trailer lost 3,000 points of sheet metal on the ramp between I-65 South and I-71 North..."

From Saturday's paper:

I-64 ramp from I-65 cleared after accident
"A tractor-trailer that jackknifed on Interstate 65 Southbound, spilling sugar and diesel fuel on the road disrupted traffic at the exit to I-64..."

What if these trucks had been loaded with hazardous material?

With an East End Bridge, these accident would likely have been prevented. Approximately 32,000 trucks go through Spaghetti Junction everyday because they don't have any choice. Using an EE Bridge would be faster (1 mile shorter), would create less downtown congestion and would help to improve the region's air quality.

Here is today's Bridges Authority to look at 8664 Press Release (PDF). 

Per the release: 

"At last Thursday's Bridges Authority meeting, Authority Secretary Sandra Frazier of Tandem Public Relations announced that the Bridges Authority would be discussing the 8664 alternative and a bridge project in St. Louis that was scaled down to avoid tolls at their next meeting. Clearly there are new reasons for reconsidering the $4.1 Billion Ohio River Bridges Project.

"With last week's poll showing only 15% of Louisvillians support building two bridges, coupled with the overwhelmingly negative reaction to tolling Spaghetti Junction, it's clearly time to look for better options" said JC Stites, 8664 Co-Founder. According to Insight Communications' recent poll, while only 14.5% supports building both bridges, a combined total of 64.6% support building the East End Bridge."

This is exciting news for anyone who wants to see Louisville progress and find a more reasonable approach to solving our transportation needs. We have contacted the author of our Feasibility Study (Walter Kulash) and hope to have him here for the next meeting on October 7th.

Cynics have suggested that this politically-appointed board could have an ulterior motive, bringing up 8664 just to trash the idea. After all, the Authority's website says it "is not charged with changing the project's scope".

But we are going assume the best to go to the meeting with the full intention of presenting the case for a less expensive, more sustainable plan.

We would welcome your input. Email us at info@8664.org.

According to St. Louis Business Journal article Most Arch Design Teams: Remove I-70 Downtown, 4 out of 5 of the groups in a design competition recommend rerouting I-70 away from downtown as proposed by the City to River advocacy group. Link to Google Maps showing I-70 across St. Louis' waterfront.

While Louisville struggles to break free from an inbred political system that answers to special interests, other cities like St. Louis are moving forward with exciting plans to embrace a more livable and sustainable future.

Nice work New Albany City Council! They passed a resolution opposing tolls on the ORBP and other SI communities should do the same.

Read about it on LEO and NA Confidential.

The Courier-Journal has not done a poll on bridge alternatives since 1996. Luckily, CN2 polled the issue and the results are dramatic.

According to a newly released poll, only 14.5% of Louisvillians support building two bridges. Here's a look at the results:

The Courier-Journal Editorial Board is at it again. They will do anything to thwart the region's most important infrastructure project -- the East End Bridge. Read the lies for yourself.

Now with propaganda and more propaganda from their "independent" news department. According to the CJ, we should all be perfectly happy to pay a $6 toll per trip across the river. Read the comments for some flavor of what most readers think about the tolls, the paper and Mayor's efforts to push the Downtown Bridge.

The Bridges Authority tried to bury the news of a $3 toll estimate on a Friday afternoon, but citizens are paying attention and are tired of the ORBP boondoggle. You can read the report, but it's more interesting to read what the Mayoral candidates had to say about it.

Hal Heiner:

"This afternoon the Louisville Southern Indiana Bridges Authority submitted a report to the regional planning agency with estimated tolls of $6 per trip.  This would represent one of Louisville's largest tax increases and I will not support this rate.  While we realize this is a preliminary number, I urge the authority to work diligently to reduce this rate.  If $6 per trip is the only way the authority can build 2 bridges, then I believe we need to reduce the scope of the project by breaking it into more manageable phases with the east end bridge being the first phase of a multi phase project.  While I believe I-65 and Spaghetti Junction will ultimately have to be addressed, I find a $6 trip financially irresponsible and a burden Louisvillians will not accept."

Greg Fischer:

"We need to build the bridges and to create the thousands of jobs that come with it - but a $3 toll is simply too much"

OK, now we're getting somewhere. The question is, what are we going to do about it? 

Here's what we had to say about it:

"It's time to divide this boondoggle of a project and build the east end bridge without tolls. We ask Greg Fischer and Hal Heiner to stand united for this important regional infrastructure project"

This afternoon on NPR's Marketplace, Andrea Bernstein reported from New York City where there is growing momentum to remove an elevated portion of the FDR Drive.

You can listen to the piece by clicking here. Click Listen Now and go to 22:10. You can also view the Photo Gallery Slideshow.

The piece concluded:

"But around the country, mayors and governors are eying urban highway teardowns as the road to development, not congestion."

Except in Louisville, KY where outgoing Mayor Jerry Abramson has been aligned for decades with a special interest group to stop the East End Bridge.

Louisville needs to change. Louisvillians are ready for change. It's time!

"For more than a decade, a plan pushed by some [Louisville] residents and transportation advocates has sat on the fringes of the State Transportation Department's to-do list, in part because it would be a radical undoing: tearing down [I-64 on Louisville's riverfront]."

OK, so we made a few changes to the NYTimes article. It's just a matter of time though. We'll get there. Read the article.

Louisville Magazine Editor Bruce Allar compares BP and the Bridges:

"I don't know about you, but I think I'd place my future infrastructure investment bets with a whiz like Buffett before laying them down with the 1990s thinking that produced our current interstate highway plan calling for two bridges and a rebuilt Spaghetti Junction."

Then Jonathan Meador with LEO followed suit with an excellent piece, Louisville Mag pooh-poohs Bridges. It ends... 

"Regardless, now that Louisville Magazine has joined The New Albany News and Tribune, LEO Weekly and other local news organs in speaking out against/being critical of/not blindly following the ORBP, that leaves The Courier-Journal as the loudest (and sole) media drum-banger for this tone-deaf waste of Kentuckiana taxpayers' money, which would be sadder were it not wholly unsurprising."

... but you should just click the link and read the whole thing.