Colleagues, partners and local officials gathered at the East End Crossing office in Jeffersonville, Indiana to mark ten years of the Lewis and Clark Bridge.
The $1.1 billion project was procured by the Indiana Finance Authority and delivered by East End Crossing Partners, a consortium of BBGI Global Infrastructure and VINCI Highways. Construction began in 2013, the bridge opened in December 2016, and the concession runs through to 2051 — so there is a long road still ahead of us.
As Bernardo Morgensztern, BBGI Director and EECP board member, put it at the event:
“When this project was developed, it was very ambitious. It brought together the public and private sectors around the long term commitment to deliver, operate and maintain an essential piece of transportation infrastructure.”
Ten years on, much of the story is about the region rather than the asset itself. Since the bridge opened, the nearby River Ridge Commerce Center has grown from 40 companies to 75, employment has risen from 7,200 to more than 13,000, and total economic output has doubled to $3.6 billion. Following the recent closure of the I-65 bridge, more than a million vehicles a month are now crossing the Lewis and Clark.
Behind the scene sits a team of around twelve people, led by General Manager Endaf Griffiths, who act as custodians of the roadway and structures every day — inspections, vegetation, snow and ice clearance, and increasingly new approaches such as the 3D model of the bridge currently being built through laser scanning. A long-term concession gives that team the continuity to plan maintenance decades ahead rather than budget cycle to budget cycle, and to invest in tools like 3D modelling that make the asset easier to manage over its full life. That patient, unglamorous stewardship is precisely what a well-structured PPP is designed to deliver.
Thank you to the Indiana Finance Authority, VINCI Highways, Mayor Mike Moore and the City of Jeffersonville, River Ridge Commerce Center and everyone who attended. And congratulations to the East End Crossing team on ten years.
