The Wednesday Morning Commute: 7am Update

Wednesday begins with one bright spot: officials say the traffic on Monday and Tuesday has been moving more smoothly than expected. Small comfort if you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, or if you're getting up much earlier to start your commute - but worth noting.A few notes: Wednesday morning traffic is reverting back to normal Third Street routes coming off westbound I-64 in downtown Louisville.TARC is adding several buses to the routes that cross the river. Here's the route information. TARC also offers Park and Ride locations in southern Indiana for travel across the Kennedy and Clark Memorial Bridges.The “Spirit of Jefferson” boat is shuttling residents across the Ohio River beginning this morning. The shuttle will cost $1 dollar each way and will initially operate on weekdays for the next two weeks.The Spirit runs from Riverfront Park in Jeffersonville to the 4th Street Wharf in Louisville. There are 265 free parking spaces under the Kennedy Bridge, where residents can park to board the shuttle. The 300 person ferry will run 6:00 and 9:00 in the morning, and between 3:00 and 5:15 in the evening. Here's the timetable.And Indiana Department of Transportation workers have begun expanding several interstate ramps in southern Indiana from one to two lanes to help ease congestion.Paving and striping crews have expanded the I-265 westbound ramp to I-64 westbound, and the I-64 eastbound ramp to I-265 eastbound. Today, they’ll expand the I-265 eastbound ramp to I-65 southbound. All the work is taking place between morning and evening rush hours.This program note: today at 1pm, we'll devote the entire hour to the latest on the Sherman Minton Bridge, the traffic problems caused by its closure, and what officials are doing about it. And we want you to call with your comments and questions.