CINCINNATI (AP) Officials say a planning group could help speed up the start date for construction of a new bridge spanning the Ohio River from Kentucky to Ohio.

Mark Policinski, executive director of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, said the group is hoping to shave three years off the planning process and begin construction as early as 2012.

Policinski said the group must first choose a location for the structure, which would replace the heavily traveled Brent Spence Bridge.

Brent Spence has been labeled “functionally deficient” by Ohio’s transportation department because it was intended to carry 80,000 vehicles a day and now handles about 150,000. Its too-narrow lanes and lack of breakdown lanes have contributed to a high number of rear-end crashes.

The new bridge is estimated to cost $1.9 billion to $3 billion.

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