Ohio

[route17fan]

well crap!      trying again.  PID is correct - just trying something else to get access.

[Buck87]

A fairly new sign has turned up near me that I find kinda funny. Thanks to ODOT's abbreviation of "Islands" to "Is"....there is now a sign on OH 2 before the OH 4 exit that lists 3 different things, but can be read together as a complete sentence that says:

"Lake Erie Is Cedar Point Ferry Service"

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4001029,-82.7108622,3a,36.5y,294.22h,89.63t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sy4LZF7KOqRfmzXvpHUkf2w!2e0

[amroad17]

My wife and I decided to head to Jeffersonville, OH to shop at the Tanger Outlets yesterday.  After finishing, I decided to drive along US 35 east to the Frankfort exit, turn around, then drive back to I-675 near Dayton with a small side trip along "Old 35" from Jamestown through Xenia.

Some observations...

     - Exit number tabs have been added on the BGS's along US 35 from at least I-675 to OH 753 just east of Washington C.H.  Exit 41 is I-675 with OH 753 as Exit 85.  The only one I saw prior to this (last May) was the EXIT 64 tab on the OH 72 Jamestown exit.  No exit number tabs have been added to any exits toward Chillicothe--mainly because Greene and Fayette Counties have updated signs (in Clearview and done very well) and Ross County has not.  Ross still has the second-generation signs (retro-reflective, no button copy) from the early 2000's standing.

     - A glaring inaccuracy on a mileage sign at the "Old 35" exit (Exit 62) west of Jamestown.  Washington C.H. is shown as being 36 miles away at this point (and Dayton 25).  At the OH 72 exit two miles east, Washington C.H. is shown at the correct mileage of 19 (with Dayton also correct at 27 miles).  Six miles west of the "Old 35" exit, Washington C.H. is shown as being 29 miles away.  That 36 should be a 21 or 22.  This is what I do not like much on highways--as mentioned in another thread.

     - The westbound Xenia mileages are wrong--they all are around 4 miles less than what they supposed to be.  From OH 753 to the other side of I-71, Xenia should be listed at 32, 26, and 16 instead of 27, 22, and 12.

     - As usual, a pleasant drive.  Too bad the day looked as if I was in Seattle.

[marleythedog]

I-71 north and southbound have both been on their new decks of the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge for a couple weeks now.

Took this from the Little Miami River trail below (the terrain made it pretty much impossible to get a picture of the whole thing):


And a lovely reassurance marker at the northbound rest area:

[marleythedog]

     - Exit number tabs have been added on the BGS's along US 35 from at least I-675 to OH 753 just east of Washington C.H.  Exit 41 is I-675 with OH 753 as Exit 85.  The only one I saw prior to this (last May) was the EXIT 64 tab on the OH 72 Jamestown exit.  No exit number tabs have been added to any exits toward Chillicothe--mainly because Greene and Fayette Counties have updated signs (in Clearview and done very well) and Ross County has not.  Ross still has the second-generation signs (retro-reflective, no button copy) from the early 2000's standing.

The sign job at 35 and 675 made nightly news at the time. The contractor screwed up the BGSs on the 675 SB C/D road so that Dayton was the control city on both 35 East and West. They came back and crossed it out on 35 East with what looked like green duct tape, then came back a few months later and put on a Xenia patch that IIRC looks small compared to the rest of the sign.

The other weird thing with that whole sign job is that they made liberal use of "EXIT ↗ ONLY" at the exit gores, even though 80-90% of the exits along that part of 35 just have deceleration lanes (and weren't marked EXIT ONLY before).

Maybe it's just coincidence, but it seems like there is a correlation between Ohio's Clearview era and generally sloppy quality control.

[Buck87]

Nice vantage point!

[frankenroad]

     - Exit number tabs have been added on the BGS's along US 35 from at least I-675 to OH 753 just east of Washington C.H.  Exit 41 is I-675 with OH 753 as Exit 85.  The only one I saw prior to this (last May) was the EXIT 64 tab on the OH 72 Jamestown exit.  No exit number tabs have been added to any exits toward Chillicothe--mainly because Greene and Fayette Counties have updated signs (in Clearview and done very well) and Ross County has not.  Ross still has the second-generation signs (retro-reflective, no button copy) from the early 2000's standing.

The sign job at 35 and 675 made nightly news at the time. The contractor screwed up the BGSs on the 675 SB C/D road so that Dayton was the control city on both 35 East and West. They came back and crossed it out on 35 East with what looked like green duct tape, then came back a few months later and put on a Xenia patch that IIRC looks small compared to the rest of the sign.

The other weird thing with that whole sign job is that they made liberal use of "EXIT ↗ ONLY" at the exit gores, even though 80-90% of the exits along that part of 35 just have deceleration lanes (and weren't marked EXIT ONLY before).

Maybe it's just coincidence, but it seems like there is a correlation between Ohio's Clearview era and generally sloppy quality control.

Ohio has been adding "EXIT ↗ ONLY" at exit gores on many roads that just have deceleration lanes, and weren't marked EXIT ONLY before.   I have seen a lot of people bail out of the right lane, because they erroneously thought it was an exit-only lane.

[hotdogPi]

We have two threads with the exact same name, and it might be hard to keep track of which is which. Merge?

[marleythedog]

We have two threads with the exact same name, and it might be hard to keep track of which is which. Merge?

There's an Ohio thread in Great Lakes (northern Ohio) and Ohio Valley (southern Ohio). The official definition of the split is on the other thread (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16419.0 ), though the threads seem to be getting crossed, and there is some contestability about that map, like lumping Dayton into northern Ohio when it's 50 miles from Cincinnati. Maybe a mod could rename the threads Northern Ohio and Southern Ohio?

[hbelkins]

We have two threads with the exact same name, and it might be hard to keep track of which is which. Merge?

There's an Ohio thread in Great Lakes (northern Ohio) and Ohio Valley (southern Ohio). The official definition of the split is on the other thread (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16419.0 ), though the threads seem to be getting crossed, and there is some contestability about that map, like lumping Dayton into northern Ohio when it's 50 miles from Cincinnati. Maybe a mod could rename the threads Northern Ohio and Southern Ohio?

Personally, I think the divide should be the geographical divide between where waters flow into the Ohio River vs. where they flow into the Great Lakes. I posted something about Columbus in the Ohio Valley board and was told by someone it should have been posted in the Great Lakes board -- never mind the fact that the Scioto River flows into the Ohio River and not Lake Erie. 

[Bitmapped]

We have two threads with the exact same name, and it might be hard to keep track of which is which. Merge?

There's an Ohio thread in Great Lakes (northern Ohio) and Ohio Valley (southern Ohio). The official definition of the split is on the other thread (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=16419.0 ), though the threads seem to be getting crossed, and there is some contestability about that map, like lumping Dayton into northern Ohio when it's 50 miles from Cincinnati. Maybe a mod could rename the threads Northern Ohio and Southern Ohio?

Personally, I think the divide should be the geographical divide between where waters flow into the Ohio River vs. where they flow into the Great Lakes. I posted something about Columbus in the Ohio Valley board and was told by someone it should have been posted in the Great Lakes board -- never mind the fact that the Scioto River flows into the Ohio River and not Lake Erie. 

If you did that, Akron would be in the Southern Ohio board which makes no logical sense.

[frankenroad]

I have a couple ideas, neither of which is perfect.

1.  Divide by area code -- N (419 567 216 440 234 330) & S (937 513 220 380 614 740) - that would cause Marion County to be in the south, though.

2.  South would include the counties that I-70 runs through, plus all counties south of those.  North would be everything else.   - the only problem with that is that Delaware and Franklin Counties, which are closely linked highway-wise, would be in different zones.

[Buck87]

Personally, I think the divide should be the geographical divide between where waters flow into the Ohio River vs. where they flow into the Great Lakes. I posted something about Columbus in the Ohio Valley board and was told by someone it should have been posted in the Great Lakes board -- never mind the fact that the Scioto River flows into the Ohio River and not Lake Erie. 

That would look like this...

[civeng]

Merge threads and access it from both regional boards?

[seicer]

I just passed the OH 164 interchange on OH 11 northbound at Columbiana and saw what may be LED reflectors on the exit ramps. They seemed to be on the outsides of the stripes. The colour was distinctive - a blue/white 8,000 Kelvin 3-LED setup per unit.

[frankenroad]

Surprisingly a general thread for Ohio-related news hasn't been started, so here it is.
http://www.dot.state.oh.us/districts/D08/Pages/I-71-MLK-Interchange-Project-Info.aspx
The official MLK Drive Project page from ODOT has a nice timeline for progress on the interchange. I couldn't find any newer information about the project. Anyone have new information on the project's progress?

The timeline here has not been updated in a couple years, but I think it is mostly still accurate - they do periodically add notifications when there are lane closings (as of today, the latest one is dated 12/19/16.)

My personal observations are that the ramp from MLK to northbound 71 is very close to opening.   I understand that when it is opened, the McMillan on-ramp is going to be shut down for a time for re-vamping.  I would expect this in the March-April 17 time frame.  It would also appear that the Taft Rd exit will have to be closed at least for a weekend if not longer when the new southbound exit ramps for MLK and Taft have the final touches put on them.  They may choose to do this when UC is not in session.   I would assume that the onramp from MLK to southbound 71 would open around the same time.   I don't know if the plan is to open all the ramps simultaneously or not.

I assume that MLK will be Exit 4 - can anyone confirm that?

[cl94]

Merge threads and access it from both regional boards?

Certainly. There really is no clear dividing point. I spent a few years in Columbus and, depending on who you talk to, it's either with the Ohio Valley or the Great Lakes. Culturally, it's more with the Ohio Valley.

[Buck87]

Merge threads and access it from both regional boards?

If possible that would probably be the best way to do it. Though that would only resolve the issue of the general thread for little stuff....the debate about the split would still be there for projects that get their own threads.

And really, there's apparently not that much demand for a southern Ohio general thread. 75% of the posts in this relatively short thread have been about how the state should be divided, not actual road related topics. Meanwhile the general Ohio thread in the Midwest-Great Lakes forum is up to 6 pages covering all sorts of on topic stuff, including the Columbus and Dayton areas.

[cl94]

Which is precisely why we should merge the threads.

[vtk]

My wife and I decided to head to Jeffersonville, OH to shop at the Tanger Outlets yesterday. 

Tanger Outlets is in (or, at least, adjacent to) Octa. Jeffersonville is the next exit up on I-71, and it has a much crappier outlet mall.

[Henry]

Tell me those are actual signs... (unless you're making them up!)

[civeng]

If possible that would probably be the best way to do it. Though that would only resolve the issue of the general thread for little stuff....the debate about the split would still be there for projects that get their own threads.

Couldn't projects be done the same way, one thread accessible from multiple boards?

[vtk]

Tell me those are actual signs... (unless you're making them up!)

That was my creation.  I suggested this to ODOT District 6 via Facebook. The reply was basically "we don't think these are warranted, but we appreciate the initiative".

[Buck87]

If possible that would probably be the best way to do it. Though that would only resolve the issue of the general thread for little stuff....the debate about the split would still be there for projects that get their own threads.

Couldn't projects be done the same way, one thread accessible from multiple boards?

I suppose, but only for ones that could go either way. No reason to have a Toledo thread accessible from Ohio Valley or a Cincinnati thread in Midwest-Great Lakes.

[Buck87]

Ha, there could be similar signs for

"You are in Ontario, not Mansfield"