Biden mentions Brent Spence Bridge at Cincinnati Town Hall Wednesday

“We gotta fix that damn bridge of yours going into Kentucky,” President Joe Biden said of the Brent Spence Bridge at his town hall event Wednesday in Cincinnati. The President touched on infrastructure needs across the country among other topics, maintaining enthusiasm for a bipartisan infrastructure bill that has been in the works now for months in the U.S. Senate.

“It’s a good thing and I think we’re going to get it done,” Biden said of the bipartisan framework.

Senate Republicans voted down an effort to begin debating the significant infrastructure bill on Wednesday, but another vote could occur next week, according to one senator’s comments on the Senate floor.

“We’re voting no today because we’re not ready, but we’re saying we do want to take up this bill as soon as we are,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), a leader of the effort. “I think that’ll be Monday.”

At least 11 Senate Republicans signed on to a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) saying they would vote yes to proceed on Monday, if certain details about the package are ready.

The bridge connecting Northern Kentucky to Southern Ohio is one of the country’s busiest bridges by freight volume, carrying roughly three percent of the nation’s GDP in a given year. Opened in the 1960s, the bridge also carries about twice the volume of vehicles than it was designed to hold, which is why the federal bridge inventory has listed it “functionally obsolete” for at least two decades.