COVINGTON, Ky. — Richard Hunt is the owner of Roebling Point Books and Coffee, a business located at the base of the Roebling Bridge. It has been closed to car traffic since February 2021 for maintenance.
“It’s had a deeper negative effect on our business than COVID,” Hunt said.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released a statement online saying the latest update on the bridge project is that it is expected to reopen to commuters this spring. Hunt said this isn’t the first update he’s heard.
“We’ve heard specific ones that haven’t been met, we’ve heard waves of it,” he said.
He said commuters occasionally stopped on their way to the Roebling Bridge before it closed.
“It was eight thousand cars a day crossing the bridge, and even though we only got one percent of that, it was enough to at least cover our costs,” Hunt said.
But now he finds himself with ‘Road Closed’ signs outside his business. He hopes to see that change one day.
“It’s really difficult because there is no easy answer. We want people to feel, now, at this exact moment, that they can go out again and that it’s warm again. It would be nice to say in this stream that the bridge is open again,” Hunt said.
