Home » New West to lead marketing on electronic tolling system for Ohio River Bridges Project

New West to lead marketing on electronic tolling system for Ohio River Bridges Project

To be used in Louisville and Southern Indiana

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Aug. 20, 2014) — The Kentucky-Indiana Joint Board today approved the hiring of a Louisville company to provide marketing, branding and communications services related to an all-electronic tolling system for the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.

This rendering depicts one of two new Ohio River bridges – shown here across the center of the photo alongside the existing Kennedy Bridge in downtown Louisville.
This rendering depicts one of two new Ohio River bridges – shown here across the center of the photo alongside the existing Kennedy Bridge in downtown Louisville.

The agency, New West, will head a full-service team tasked with educating and acclimating motorists to a tolling system in which traffic always flows at expressway speeds, and the lowest toll rates are reserved for drivers who use transponders for automatic payments.

“All-electronic tolling in transportation is the state of the art elsewhere around the nation but will be a new experience in Louisville and Southern Indiana,” said Kentucky Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock, who presided at the Joint Board meeting. “In the months ahead, we will be counting on the New West team, through this contract, to help travelers learn about the advantages of a system in which there is no slowing, stopping or waiting in line at a toll booth.”

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet procured New West on behalf of the Joint Board. Indiana is procuring the toll system provider.

New West, whose specialties include brand development and graphic design and which created the “Unbridled Spirit” official logo of the Commonwealth, won a competitive contract on a price bid of $1,674,000. New West’s team includes Frank Wilson & Associates, a California-based marketing communications company with long experience in transportation projects, and a second Kentucky company, EHI Consultants, of Lexington, whose specialties include market research.

The Ohio River Bridges project involves construction of two new bridges and their approaches, rehabilitation of the Interstate 65 John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge and reconstruction of the Kennedy Interchange, where I-65, I-64 and I-71 come together in downtown Louisville.

The project has two parts:

  • Downtown Crossing – A new bridge to carry northbound I-65 traffic between Louisville and Jeffersonville, Indiana. Renovation of the Kennedy Memorial Bridge to carry southbound I-65 traffic. Reconstruction of the Kennedy Interchange.
  • East End Crossing – A new bridge, upriver from Louisville, to connect the Gene Snyder Freeway in Kentucky with the Lee Hamilton Highway in Southern Indiana. It will complete a loop around the greater Louisville area.