I had the opportunity this weekend to travel from Youngstown to Wheeling and went down Ohio 7 beyond Steubenville for the first time in more than a decade.
There are two spots where the southbound lanes are closed and one lane traffic each way is being maintained in the northbound lanes. One area is just north of Brilliant and one is just south of Brilliant.
In each case there are large metal barriers, perhaps 10 or more feet tall, between the original southbound and northbound lanes. The northernmost set had weeds growing out of the top. The southern set almost looked like boxcars. They seem to be doing some work on blasting away the hillside on the southernmost area, but it almost appears as if they have abandoned hope of using the southbound lanes north of Brilliant.
I searched the archives the best I could, but didn't see anything.
Does anyone have any more background on what is happening here?
Thanks
From what I can find online, this was rockfall mitigation from 2012 that was supposed to be done in 2013. I don't know why it's still there, but my best guess is that they found more problems in the rock than they anticipated. I don't see any indication that it's permanent, but I also don't see any references from 2014 about ongoing work.
Link to southern closure: https://maps.google.com/?ll=40.225319,-80.664207&spn=0.003694,0.016512&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=40.225322,-80.664211&panoid=miv1MiCsp_YOy2GflOPurg&cbp=11,11.29,,0,-1.99
Northern closure: https://maps.google.com/?ll=40.274336,-80.61892&spn=0.007383,0.033023&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=40.274328,-80.618927&panoid=ElSHEnDYTzv4KndDck0drg&cbp=11,0.85,,0,3.16
The northern closure barrier looks like it's giant rock blocks as opposed to the red boxcar/shipping containers at the southern closure, but maybe that's just an optical illusion.
Quote from: Mr. Matté on June 05, 2014, 01:49:46 PM
The northern closure barrier looks like it's giant rock blocks as opposed to the red boxcar/shipping containers at the southern closure, but maybe that's just an optical illusion.
That's a fair comparison - they definitely looked different as I drove through there.
I see the North streetview is from October 2013 - and there are no apparent weeds, etc growing through the top like I saw last weekend.