Funding set for major area road construction

Planning funds have been set aside for widening I-75 in North Toledo and south of Perrysburg, studying the I-475/U.S. 23 interchange at Central Avenue in Sylvania Township, and identifying possible routes around North Baltimore for State Rt. 18 in the latest revision to Ohio's "major-new" construction program that a state panel approved yesterday.

While still on the future-development list, however, the third phase of modernizing the I-75 and I-475 junction near central Toledo - a project for which the second phase is scheduled to begin later this year - remains unfunded.

The Transportation Review Advisory Council planning list also retains for future development, but provides no immediate funding for, modernizing the I-475 and U.S. 23 junction in Sylvania Township and widening I-75 between the Washington Street/14th Street and Anthony Wayne Trail interchanges in downtown Toledo.

"It's very exciting. We think we did well here," said Mike Ligibel, the Ohio Department of Transportation's district planning administrator in Bowling Green. "All of the projects we submitted are on the list. They aren't all funded, but they're on the list."

The only Toledo-area projects funded for construction in the statewide plan are the $89.5 million second phase of the I-75 and I-475 interchange project, which ODOT had previously announced as part of its construction program for this year with a scheduled start in July; a $10.8 million "freeway management system" for Toledo scheduled during fiscal 2011, and $3.2 million in safety upgrades on State Rt. 2 between Oregon and Port Clinton.

The I-75 and I-475 work primarily affects I-475 and features rebuilding and widening its I-75 ramps, and relocating several other ramps near Jackman Road and Upton Avenue into a consolidated interchange at an extended Promedica Parkway.

This phase is scheduled for completion in 2013. The project's first phase, replacement of the Douglas Road and Auburn Avenue bridges over I-475 and the Central Avenue bridge over I-75, is scheduled to end in July.

The final phase, widening and reconfiguring I-75 between I-475 and Phillips Avenue, is unscheduled, but preliminary engineering was completed several years ago. The new TRAC program includes preliminary engineering and detailed-design funds for widening I-75 between Phillips and I-280, including the Stickney-Lagrange interchange.

It also includes planning money to study I-75 between I-475 in Perrysburg and Findlay, contingent on the outcome of discussions with Lucas and Wood county officials about the potential for special tax districts along that corridor to help pay for it and with local utilities about building wind turbines and solar-power arrays as an alternative-energy demonstration.

Adding a third lane to I-75 in that area is estimated to cost $363 million.

The Route 18 study will be very preliminary, Mr. Ligibel said. It is intended to anticipate trucking growth associated with a rail terminal CSX Transportation is building west of North Baltimore. A local steering committee is likely to be set up to discuss ways to bypass Route 18 around that village, he said.

The Central Avenue planning in Sylvania Township, meanwhile, will take a first look at what options there are for addressing safety and congestion problems there, Mr. Ligibel said. He noted that any such planning will have to accommodate the I-475/U.S. 23 junction's future modernization.

Also on the five-year construction plan is $20.3 million for expenses associated with the state's abandonment of existing U.S. 24 and State Rt. 424 in conjunction with the opening of a new U.S. 24 west of Defiance and east of Napoleon. ODOT will resurface the old highways and repair or replace culverts before turning them over to the four counties along the route, Mr. Ligibel explained.

Contact David Patch at:

dpatch@theblade.com

or 419-724-6094.