ODOT gives progress updates for I-71 project

By Alberta Stojkovic -

Begin­ning in March, work will begin to widen I-71 from north of US Rt. 36/37 in Delaware County to just north of SR 61 in Mor­row County. This Ohio Dept. of Trans­porta­tion project will also recon­struct the bridge­­­­­­ over Crall Rd. (Twp. Rd. 216) in Mor­row County and will include the resur­fac­ing of the exit ramps at SR 61 and I-71. This 9 mile project is the sec­ond of three con­struc­tion projects to add a third lane to I-71.

March 18 there will be a clos­ing of SR 314 for 120 days. This will be part of the first project from St. Rt. 95 to Rich­land County. Mor­row County ODOT man­ager, Bill Young pre­dicted that SR 314 should be opened by July 4. The con­struc­tion group is given 120 days, but he believes they will be fin­ished before then.

ODOT Com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ager, Nancy Bur­ton said that she and Young have met with Amish Bish­ops in the area that is affected by the clos­ing. They have advised the Amish of the road work on SR 314 and the work schedule.

The infor­ma­tion and updates were given at a meet­ing last Wednes­day with Engi­neers and staff from ODOT, con­trac­tors, and Mor­row and Delaware County offi­cials at ODOT’s Delaware County office.

Project engi­neer Dave Johan­son said that dur­ing con­struc­tion dri­vers can expect:

• Speed lim­its will be reduced to 55 mph.

• Dri­vers will see a lot of bar­rier walls and reflectors.

• Con­struc­tion entrances are planned for con­struc­tion vehi­cles and emer­gency vehicles.

• Week­end clo­sure of the I-71/SR 61 ramps, but prior noti­fi­ca­tion will be given.

Mor­row County Com­mis­sioner Tom Harden asked about plans on clos­ing lanes because of con­cern for trucks and the heavy traf­fic flow through Mor­row County.

Johan­son said that the con­trac­tor, Ken­more Con­struc­tion, has com­pleted drainage work along I-71 dur­ing the win­ter months. That is the nec­es­sary pre­lim­i­nary work before the heavy con­struc­tion work begins. Two lanes will be main­tained in each direc­tion on I-71. He said the I-71 South­bound traf­fic will be shifted over between US 36/37 and SR 61 to give the con­trac­tor space to work. Traf­fic will be moved onto the berms.

Halfway through the sum­mer the lanes will change over again and I-71 north traf­fic will be shifted over north of SR 61 for one half mile to con­struct the bridge over Crall Road. Crall Road (Twp. Rd. 216) will be closed until bridge work is com­pleted. Bur­ton assured the Mor­row County offi­cials that ODOT is aware of the tour­na­ment sched­ules for Car­di­nal Cen­ter and the big race week­ends for Mid-Ohio. They will respect their event sched­ules and try to work around those dates.

Pat Davies asked about the paint­ing of over­head bridges in Mor­row County. Johan­son said it will be beige. He said bridges have been raised over I-71 to the new stan­dard of 16 ½ feet. Two bridges will be raised on CR 15 and TR 216 and they are get­ting rid of the bridge for the rail­road. Two bridges were also replaced in Project 1 at the north end of Mor­row County. Bridges to be com­pleted are over Co. Rd. 23, SR 229 and CR 15.

Johan­son pointed out that this is a design-build con­struc­tion instead of the usual bid-build. This means that the con­trac­tor works on the design as well as the con­struc­tion. This allows the con­trac­tor to design the work in the style that best fits their meth­ods and should save time, money and be more effi­cient. Kokos­ing was the con­trac­tor for Project 1, Ken­more is con­tract­ing Project 2 and Project 3 is yet to be offi­cially awarded.

Quick Facts: ODOT l-71 Project 2: Impact to Traf­fic Starts: March 2013. Where: US 36/37 to SR 61. What: Add third lane in each direc­tion, replace bridges over Crall Road TR 216, and resur­face I-71/SR 61 ramps. Con­trac­tor: Ken­more Con­struc­tion and URS. Project com­plete: Octo­ber 2014 Cost: $50 mil­lion Ques­tions: Con­tact ODOT by email at d06.pio@dot.state.oh.us or by phone at 740–833-8268. The Mor­row County Sen­tinel also will post updates on the web­site at www.morrowcountysentinel.com.

Posted by Taylor Kaser on Feb 27 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.