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Author Topic: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads  (Read 99207 times)

Hot Rod Hootenanny

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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #75 on: November 13, 2012, 11:13:31 PM »

The exit signs for I-71 are certainly still orange-patched to note the temporary lane configuration, whereby 3 lanes exit for I-71 instead of just two.

I'm hoping this project will allow ODOT to fix the inconsistent exit numbers in the area; some of them are just about guaranteed to be fixed due to changed ramp topologies, but I fear some will remain — notably, how exits 4A and 4B are 3rd and 4th Streets, but which is which depends on the direction one is exiting from :-(

Looking through my 670 signage photo collection, I can predict two more rounds of signage alterations for that interstate in the next 5 years.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #76 on: February 20, 2013, 11:00:58 AM »

Just found this:


[Original: 1.1MB]

There's not much new information here in the big picture, but it's interesting to see the exact scope of the Mound St part of the project that's been moved up to this year.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #77 on: February 20, 2013, 11:06:58 AM »

This is just a side observation, but I wish that table included a field giving the PIDs for each project, for those of us who keep track of such things.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #78 on: June 06, 2013, 01:10:06 PM »

Some photos from Tuesday:

Ramp from Elijah Pierce Ave / Spring St to I-71 NB bridge over ramp from I-71 NB to I-670 WB
Ramp from Elijah Pierce Ave / Spring St to I-71 NB
I-71, north view from Spring St
I-71 SB bridge over ramp from I-670 EB to I-71 SB; temporary I-71 SB

More in the quoted thread.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #79 on: June 22, 2013, 02:21:23 PM »

Went on ohgo.com today, hoping to catch some of the Pride parade on traffic cams.  Instead, I found this stale image of the 71/670 construction:

(I have applied some enhancement to this image.)

Not much is visible, except for some progress pouring the deck on new I-670 EB flyover.  Of course, I haven't myself been able to photograph that bridge from above, so any overhead shot is a treat.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #80 on: July 08, 2013, 11:40:16 AM »

Work begins on Mound Street Connector
(Phase 2C illustrated above)

http://www.columbusunderground.com/work-begins-on-mound-street-connector-next-phase-of-7071-split-bw1

Quote
Today, work begins on re-connecting Mound Street between 5th Street and Grant Avenue — a key part of the plan to establish Mound as a one-way collector street bringing west-bound traffic into Downtown from I-70. Traffic will flow into Downtown from a new “fly-over”  bridge that will connect the freeway to Mound Street where it currently intersects with Washington Street. Once the Mound Street Connector is open, which ODOT is estimating will be in the fall of 2014, the 4th Street exit from I-70 west will close.



A new 18th Street bridge, which is also included in this phase of the project, will feature street lights and wrought-iron fencing.



Phase 2D is scheduled to start in 2014 and will include further work on Mound Street (west of 4th Street), as well as new exit ramps to Parsons Avenue, new bridges at Main, Grant and 4th Streets, and work on Fulton Street — which will eventually serve as the east-bound collector road for downtown.







It seems that the initial terminology of multiple projects, each with multiple phases, has been abandoned entirely in favor of one epic project with numbered large phases, which are divided into number-lettered phases as necessary.  Also, portions of the phasing chart above may now be out of date; I think I saw a document on ODOT website detailing some changes to work limits on future phases to refocus limited funds.



I still don't get why they're doing 3 through lanes eastbound on I-70, but only 2 through lanes westbound.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2013, 11:35:37 PM by vtk »
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #81 on: August 02, 2013, 02:56:37 PM »

I managed to find this updated phasing chart which reflects the most recent shuffling of money by the Kasich administration:



(Original 26MB image)

I still find it troubling that the West Split (Mound / Sandusky) Interchange still isn't funded.  It looks like the C/D ramps are to be more or less grafted onto the existing interchange.  And it sort of looks like they've modified the design wrt how the I-71 southbound through movement interacts with the westbound Mound St entrance, but I can't tell from this graphic with certainty.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #82 on: August 24, 2013, 04:21:19 AM »

Southbound I-71 is closed through the I-670 interchange this weekend. When it reopens, I-71 traffic will be on its final alignment.  Other things are supposed to start opening up over the next several weeks, too.  I think I heard it will be all done (from a ramps and lanes open perspective) sometime in November.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #83 on: September 09, 2013, 02:28:51 PM »

A couple weeks ago I got some pictures of the Mound Street Connector construction.  Just now got around to preparing them for sharing on Internet.



First 4 photos: Mound Street Connector (future exit from I-70 WB) construction, with Main St to I-71 SB ramp reconstruction in foreground.  5th photo: existing Mound St to be reconstructed soon.  (Can't really tell from the photo, but the parking lanes are exposed brick pavers.)  Last photo: construction of missing section of Mound Street between Fifth and Grant.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #84 on: September 15, 2013, 05:52:51 PM »

New I-670 EB flyover bridge is now open.  With that, I-670 EB mainline is on final alignment and has final topology.  Approaching I-71 interchange, left 2 lanes of I-670 EB are for I-670 through traffic.  The ramps to I-71 now diverge from the mainline on the right as a single two-lane Exit 5.

Update: Pictures!




« Last Edit: September 17, 2013, 12:24:10 PM by vtk »
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #85 on: September 22, 2013, 11:46:11 AM »

Seems they have saved the real bottleneck for last....the W I-70/71 split is the worst because if you are driving north on i-71, once you merge on I-70, you have two miles to navigate across several lanes to continue northward...and to top that off, you essentially have a three-lane interstate narrow down to ONE lane to merge to I-70E....
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #86 on: November 10, 2013, 01:32:42 PM »

http://www.dot.state.oh.us/projects/71670/Pages/Be-Ready.-New-Ramps-New-Movements-in-One-Week.aspx

Ramps now open: Fifth Ave to I-71 SB; I-71 SB to Spring St / Lester Dr; I-670 WB to Spring St / Lester Dr.  The ramps from Cleveland Ave to I-670 EB and I-71 NB should be open by tomorrow. 

By next Monday, various ramps associated with I-71 NB are scheduled to open.  This will complete the 71/670 project, at least from a lanes-and-ramps-open perspective.  The project continues to spring; I assume this is landscaping and other minor finishing work (as well as the C/D roads between Spring and Long). 

Note, in the diagram I provided showing the completed configuration, I made a guess about a lane reduction on I-71 SB which now appears will be wrong.  In the diagram, I-71 is shown as 3 lanes after the ramp to Spring St diverges, then remains 3 lanes as the ramp from I-670 WB merges in (with a lane shift to the right relative to the super-final configuration after future projects), then the right lane is dropped as the exit to Broad St, leaving 2 lanes for I-71 SB and room for a third lane on the left.  Instead, I-71 SB will be 3 lanes only for a short distance after the ramp to Spring St diverges, then the left lane ends, with room for it to continue; I-71 will remain 2 lanes with room for a third lane on the left, plus an auxiliary lane on the right between the entrance from I-670 WB and the exit to Broad St. 
« Last Edit: February 04, 2014, 03:00:59 PM by vtk »
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #87 on: February 04, 2014, 03:16:06 PM »

ODOT has updated the signage on westbound I-70 approaching I-71 ("east split" interchange):



That "downtown" exit lane is actually (for now) exit only for Fourth Street, which is exit 100B.  This seems to be a hint that the exit to Mound Street they're currently constructing will be exit 101B (and probably simply signed as Downtown).  I had previously predicted it would be exit 100.

I suspect the impetus for this signage change was largely the right two lanes.  Previously, they were signed separately for I-71 NB and Broad St.  Since November, neither of those two lanes become through lanes on I-71 anymore: the right lane is still exit-only for Broad St; the other now becomes exit-only for I-670 not far downstream on I-71.  Seems like if they kept US 40 / Broad St on that sign, they might as well have said "to I-670" as well.  For that matter, US 62 and OH 16 are on that stretch of Broad St; why aren't they mentioned?
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #88 on: February 04, 2014, 04:32:52 PM »

For that matter, US 62 and OH 16 are on that stretch of Broad St; why aren't they mentioned?

That always bothered me too. It makes sense to omit OH 16, I guess, since the entirety of OH 16 west of Bexley is redundant with US 40, but why leave off US 62?
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #89 on: February 04, 2014, 05:08:39 PM »

For that matter, US 62 and OH 16 are on that stretch of Broad St; why aren't they mentioned?

That always bothered me too. It makes sense to omit OH 16, I guess, since the entirety of OH 16 west of Bexley is redundant with US 40, but why leave off US 62?

They omit quite a few routes on the BGSs in Downtown Cleveland as well: (US-6 is not listed on the Superior Avenue Exit, US-322 is not listed on the Chester Avenue Exit, US-422/SR-8 are not listed on the Woodland Avenue exit,...(though to ODOTs defense, the latter exit already lists East 30th St., Woodland and Broadway Avenues on the signs -- adding shields to the sign is TMI!)

So don't feel bad, Columbus.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #90 on: February 04, 2014, 07:36:32 PM »

For that matter, US 62 and OH 16 are on that stretch of Broad St; why aren't they mentioned?

That always bothered me too. It makes sense to omit OH 16, I guess, since the entirety of OH 16 west of Bexley is redundant with US 40, but why leave off US 62?

They omit quite a few routes on the BGSs in Downtown Cleveland as well: (US-6 is not listed on the Superior Avenue Exit, US-322 is not listed on the Chester Avenue Exit, US-422/SR-8 are not listed on the Woodland Avenue exit,...(though to ODOTs defense, the latter exit already lists East 30th St., Woodland and Broadway Avenues on the signs -- adding shields to the sign is TMI!)

So don't feel bad, Columbus.

At least columbus didn't pull an indianapolis and get rid of all the highways inside the beltway
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exit10

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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #91 on: February 05, 2014, 07:47:04 PM »

At least columbus didn't pull an indianapolis and get rid of all the highways inside the beltway

Honestly, this might be an improvement, at least in moderation, given that most routes running through the city zigzag in ways no one would ever think of traveling and do not conform to historic routes (US 23 is the worst offender, but US 33, US 40, US 62, and OH 3 all do this to one degree or another).

I might need to make a Fictional Highways post out of this ...
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #92 on: February 05, 2014, 08:22:41 PM »

US 23 is the worst offender

Speaking of that, when was US 23 moved off most of High Street? Was the idea to reduce traffic past OSU?
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #93 on: February 05, 2014, 09:25:04 PM »

At least columbus didn't pull an indianapolis and get rid of all the highways inside the beltway

Honestly, this might be an improvement, at least in moderation, given that most routes running through the city zigzag in ways no one would ever think of traveling and do not conform to historic routes (US 23 is the worst offender, but US 33, US 40, US 62, and OH 3 all do this to one degree or another).

I might need to make a Fictional Highways post out of this ...

You're right, especially us 40, it makes a lot of weird zigzags when it first enters Ohio from Indiana.  Also Ohio has way to many state highways, especially in its cities, some seemingly doubly or even triply redundant.  Do the cities maintain the routes inside their boarders?  I would seem having so many routes would be insanely expensive for a state to maintain.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #94 on: February 06, 2014, 07:38:00 PM »

To give you an example, for snow plowing in Columbus: the state does the interstates, the city does SRs 104 and 315, even though they are state routes and freeways. The state has nothing like say Virginia, where everything is a state road. Here there are state, county, and even township roads. The township my mom lives in has a "road and cemetery" department and that's pretty much all the services she gets from them.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #95 on: February 06, 2014, 11:24:12 PM »

To give you an example, for snow plowing in Columbus: the state does the interstates, the city does SRs 104 and 315, even though they are state routes and freeways. The state has nothing like say Virginia, where everything is a state road. Here there are state, county, and even township roads. The township my mom lives in has a "road and cemetery" department and that's pretty much all the services she gets from them.

I think you might live in the same township I do. We find the zoning enforcement people are very much doing their jobs.  (I once saw some township literature which summarized the budget: Road&Cemetery, Police, Zoning, and one other department (possibly Fire) all received roughly equal allocation.  I didn't know the township even had a police force…)

Incorporated cities over some threshold (5K or 10K, I forget which) take over maintenance of non-Interstate state routes in Ohio.  Signage of these routes is usually adequate; that may or may not be handled by ODOT in most cities, but there are a few cities which clearly do their own (cringeworthy but typically still functionally adequate) route signage.

I think US 23 was rerouted off High St in the 60s; I could pin it down tighter, but I'm not on my PC at the moment to look at the old maps.  Columbus had seen explosive northward growth after the war, and whichever street carried US 23 would be burdened both with that intercity traffic and a lot of commuters. The one-way pair of Summit and 4th was better able to perform that double duty than High St, I suppose.

Moving the US routes to freeways in Columbus is something I can support, at least to some degree.  I'll have to elaborate more on that in Fictional Highways.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #96 on: February 07, 2014, 09:42:12 PM »

I think US 23 was rerouted off High St in the 60s; I could pin it down tighter, but I'm not on my PC at the moment to look at the old maps.

I just happened to have the official Ohio state map from 1957 within arm's length -- According to the Columbus inset, it was on the Fourth/Summit corridor even then, with one-way sections between Hudson and Warren north of downtown.
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Hot Rod Hootenanny

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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #97 on: February 12, 2014, 10:52:27 PM »

Seems like if they kept US 40 / Broad St on that sign, they might as well have said "to I-670" as well.  For that matter, US 62 and OH 16 are on that stretch of Broad St; why aren't they mentioned?

62 and 16 (along Broad St) have never been signed from I-71. Even the old photos from the Columbus newspapers only show US 40.
Heck, ODOT didn't get around to adding an Ohio 3 shield to the Cleveland Ave. overheads, along I-71, till I-670 east (to the airport) was completed in '89 or '90.
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Re: I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #98 on: October 09, 2014, 09:57:31 PM »

The Mound Street Connector and related work along Mound Street are nearing completion.  I think that should be done by the end of the year.

Google now has aerial imagery from mid June, so it's now pretty easy to see what's changed since 2011.
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I-70/71 Columbus Crossroads
« Reply #99 on: October 10, 2014, 04:41:20 PM »

The Mound Street Connector and related work along Mound Street are nearing completion.  I think that should be done by the end of the year.

Google now has aerial imagery from mid June, so it's now pretty easy to see what's changed since 2011.

The connector is supposed to be open by the end of October according to ODOTs Instagram page.

Re: new Google imagery, I am now on street view in a work truck up at Sawmill and 161 :bigass:

Edit: random curious thought, seems like every other state has a general developments thread in the regional forums...why not us? Aside from the obvious "no one's made one yet."
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