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Redoing the intersection for Oh 750 & Oh 315 (Powell Rd & Olentangy River Rd)

Started by Hot Rod Hootenanny, September 23, 2012, 12:49:34 AM

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Hot Rod Hootenanny

From Saturday's Delaware Gazette (and behind a paywall to boot)

ODOT eyes left-turn lanes at Ohio 315, 750
PAUL COMSTOCK Staff Writer

The Ohio Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion has a plan which could lead to the instal­la­tion of left-turn lanes on all approaches to the Ohio 315 and Ohio 750 inter­sec­tion in 2014.

ODOT Dis­trict 6 engi­neer Thom Slack gave details to a Fri­day morn­ing gath­er­ing of the Greater Pow­ell Area Cham­ber of Com­merce at the Lib­erty Township-Powell YMCA.

The pro­posal is one part of a larger plan to pre­vent part of the inter­sec­tion from slid­ing into the Olen­tangy River.

Slack said the river slowly is eat­ing away the embank­ment north and south of the inter­sec­tion. ODOT has been devel­op­ing a project "the past cou­ple of years"  to stop the problem.

Addi­tion­ally, "there's always been a desire to at least improve the (750 and 315) inter­sec­tion,"  he said, "and we wanted to find a way to get as much turn lane as pos­si­ble in there as part of this project."

The plan is "in very much draft for­mat,"  Slack said, and sev­eral things will have to fall into place before all the turn lanes can be added.

The Ohio 315 pave­ment will have to be widened and ODOT will need to obtain land on the west side of the road.

The plan assumes the remain­der of the hill­side on 315's west side can be kept in place by a retain­ing wall yet to be built, Slack said. ODOT will need to con­firm that assump­tion is correct.

The plan "looks great on a flat piece of paper,"  he said, but it remains to be seen if it can be suc­cess­fully engi­neered on the actual terrain.

Even if all four turn lanes can be installed, "it's not enough to turn that (traf­fic) sig­nal back into nir­vana,"  Slack said.

ODOT's ten­ta­tive plan calls for a turn lane 300 feet long for north­bound traf­fic on 315, and 100 feet long for south­bound traf­fic. Those lengths are "a lit­tle bit of a com­pro­mise,"  he said.

About 18 months ago, ODOT did a study show­ing the turn lane for north­bound traf­fic would have to be 600 feet long "to make the inter­sec­tion func­tion ... prop­erly."  That much length would make the project cost-prohibitive, he said.

Such an expanded plan also would need a high rank­ing on ODOT's cap­i­tal improve­ment project list before it could be funded, he said. Some projects on the list wait years for funding.

The plan to stop ero­sion caused by the river will be cov­ered by main­te­nance funds and won't be on the cap­i­tal improve­ments list, Slack said. That could increase the like­li­hood funds will be avail­able, but it doesn't guar­an­tee it, he said.

He said if the turn-lane plan does suc­ceed, it is "not an effort to turn 315 into a three— or five-lane boule­vard"  along its length.

Things look more promis­ing for Ohio 750; Slack said ODOT "def­i­nitely"  can add turn lanes there. The bridge on the east side is wide enough for three marked lanes, and widen­ing 750 on the west side can be accom­plished with rel­a­tive ease.

The work on the river­bank will be exten­sive and prob­a­bly will force a detour of 315, Slack said. Pil­ings will be installed to hold up the river's embankment.

At least once before, in 2008, the Olen­tangy devoured some pave­ment. Part of Chap­man Road slid into the riverbed, cre­at­ing dam­age exceed­ing $144,000.

Also dur­ing the Fri­day ses­sion, ODOT engi­neer Fay Tay­lor joined Slack in describ­ing work planned on Ohio 750 west of Pow­ell. When the work is fin­ished, 750 will have mul­ti­ple lanes between Pow­ell and the highway's bypass around the Colum­bus Zoo and Aquarium.

Tay­lor and Slack also said they would look into some of the Cham­ber mem­bers' con­cerns about the tim­ing of traf­fic sig­nals on Ohio 750 (Pow­ell Road) inside the city.
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above


vtk

I thought the locals were too concerned with the road's scenic and/or rural character to allow any kind of widening.

What they really ought to do is build a 5-lane highway on the top of the hill.  I'm not even talking about trying to make an alternate to US 23 here; the area is growing and 315 should be 5 lanes just for the local traffic.
Wait, it's all Ohio? Always has been.

Hot Rod Hootenanny

ODOT link for the project - http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D06/projects/315Slope/Pages/default.aspx
(Evidently the public had their say on this back in 2008 while the local's energy went towards "saving" the Orange Road bridge)
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

Hot Rod Hootenanny

Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above



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