were underway. On November 16, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced that the accident and subsequent fire did not compromise the integrity of the bridge. Kentucky Transportation Secretary Jim Gray stated that the damage was confined to a section of the bridge. The bridge reopened on December 22, one day ahead of schedule. Replacement In 2008, the Cincinnati City Council supported a plan called Alternative #4, which involved building a new bridge to carry I-75 at the current location and demolishing the Brent Spence Bridge. Alternative #4 entailed building a parallel bridge just west of the Brent Spence Bridge. It would again be a two-deck bridge, except the top deck would carry all I-75 traffic and the bottom deck would carry south I-71 and local traffic. The I-75 deck would have a total of 6 lanes, with 3 lanes each for north and south traffic. The I-71 deck would be a total of 5 lanes, divided into 3 lanes for south local traffic, and 2 lanes of south 71 traffic. Additionally, Cincinnati City Council expressed interest in using the bridge for a light rail system that would connect downtown Cincinnati to the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. In 2012, a new plan known as Alternative I was designated as the "Selected Alternative." The plan still entailed building a new double deck bridge just west of the existing Brent Spence Bridge, this time with three lanes each way for I-75, two lanes for southbound I-71, and three lanes for southbound local traffic. The major change under Alternative I was that the existing Brent Spence Bridge was to be rehabilitated to carry two lanes for northbound I-71 and three lanes for northbound local traffic. In 2021, an upgrade or replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge was prioritized in the American Jobs Plan, which was later reworked into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. With potential funding thus in place, refining the plan in conversation with local stakeholders progressed more rapidly. By late spring 2022, while the bridge design and location of Alternative I was largely maintained, the traffic design plan had been replaced by three updated concepts, known as M, W, and S, with Concept W, an alternative developed in 2015 which would separate local and through traffic by placing all I-71 and I-75 traffic on the new bridge and limit traffic on the existing bridge to local traffic only, emerging as the favored