In the immortal words of baseball great Yogi Berra, “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

That has to be the way that many Ironton and Lawrence County residents feel about the upcoming public hearing about the replacement of the Ironton-Russell Bridge.

Although the primary focus will be on the latest architectural design and where the span will touch down in each state, most of the information will feel familiar.

The new bridge will be situated between Second Street in downtown Ironton and U.S. Route 23 near its intersection with Kentucky 244 in Russell.

But perhaps the most encouraging part is that there is at least a project still to be talked about.

Replacing the existing structure has been on the agenda for years but a variety of design and budgetary issues have basically kept it grounded.

This was a project that former Gov. Ted Strickland promised to support but the reality is that it progressed very little during his time in office.

Hopefully John Kasich will make this a priority and help it finally happen. We invite the new governor down to Lawrence County to make a couple trips across the span that has outlived its expected lifespan.

We are confident this would move the project up on the priority list.

Although this may seem like a formality, it is important that Lawrence Countians come out to the Feb. 1 meeting so the Ohio Department of Transportation knows exactly how important a bridge is to our community.