Planning for a circumferential highway around Cincinnati shaped the development of several major Ohio River crossings, including the Carroll Lee Cropper Bridge and the Combs-Hehl Bridges.
Initial concepts for a regional beltway dated to the early 1950s, when Ohio and Kentucky pursued independent plans that were later consolidated into what became the Circle Freeway. By 1962, the highway departments of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana adopted an 80-mile route encircling the metropolitan area, incorporating new river crossings at both the western and eastern ends of the future Interstate 275.
The western crossing, later named the Carroll Lee Cropper Bridge, emerged out of competing plans for a toll span between Petersburg, Kentucky, and Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Concerns that the Circle Freeway would undermine the toll proposal led officials in Kentucky and Indiana to push for a realignment that placed the interstate at the same location and allowed the bridge to be constructed without tolls. Federal approval followed in 1963 and 1964, and construction began in the late 1960s. The Dravo Corporation completed the central river piers in 1969, and the Nashville Bridge Company erected the steel arch-shaped truss superstructure in the early 1970s. Indiana’s work progressed more slowly, but by December 1977, the Carroll Lee Cropper Bridge opened as a key link between Boone County and Dearborn County.
On the eastern side of the beltway, the Combs-Hehl Bridges provided a parallel milestone. Work on their substructure began in 1968, and steel superstructure contracts followed in 1972. The twin cantilevered Warren through trusses required 12,000 tons of steel and represented a $30.5 million investment led by the Kentucky State Highway Department. The bridges opened on December 19, 1979, completing the final segment of the Interstate 275 loop. They connected Campbell County and Hamilton County and were named in honor of Governor Bert T. Combs and Judge-Executive Lambert Hehl.
Both crossings later required rehabilitation because of structural concerns. The Cropper Bridge underwent a deck overhaul between 2014 and 2015 and required steel repairs in 2025 after inspections of T-1 steel welds identified deficiencies. Similar federal inspections prompted repairs on the Combs-Hehl Bridges beginning in September 2025, addressing T-1 steel locations and stringer elements. Although neither bridge faced immediate structural concerns, the work reflected a broader effort to maintain the integrity of the problematic T-1 steel’s high strength, which makes it more susceptible to hydrogen-assisted cracking, especially in ion welds.
Together, the Carroll Lee Cropper Bridge and the Combs-Hehl Bridges marked key milestones in completing Cincinnati’s outer beltway.