As usual at Ohio State, it all comes down to Woody Hayes.
Woody Hayes Drive is closed to traffic between Kenny Road and Herrick Drive. The closing marks the beginning of what is likely to be a long and difficult time for motorists in the OSU area.
In addition to construction on Woody Hayes Drive, for the next two years the OSU community will suffer as Lane Avenue is widened, and as the Woody Hayes and Lane Avenue bridges are replaced. Also, two ramps will be built for easy access to South Campus from state Route 315.
“The long-term goal is to improve traffic capacity and access to campus,” said Laura Shinn, senior campus planner for OSU.
The construction will be painful but it will be short-term, Shinn said.
Construction on Woody Hayes Drive “has to be done before the Lane Avenue Bridge is torn down,” said Tricia Petras, senior engineer for Ohio State’s Engineers Office. Woody Hayes was closed down completely to get the construction done quickly.
“Even though the official detour during the Lane Avenue Bridge project will be Ackerman/Dodridge (north of Lane) anybody who knows anything won’t go that way,” Petras said. “We are expecting heavier traffic on Woody Hayes.”
Woody Hayes Drive should be open by the first home football game on Aug. 24. The pavement will be replaced, and new sidewalks and lighting will be installed at a total cost of $1.2 million.
Construction on the Woody Hayes Bridge is expected to begin at the end of August and take about 18 months to complete. The bridge, which was once a railroad bridge, is aging and must be replaced for safety reasons, Petras said.
A four-lane bridge will replace the old two-lane Woody Hayes Bridge, she said. In the process the bridge will be realigned in order to straighten out Woody Hayes Drive.
Traffic will be maintained in both directions throughout the project, Petras said. Two lanes of the new bridge will be built north of the existing bridge. Traffic will be moved to the new bridge and the old bridge will be torn down. Another two-lane bridge will be built next to it. A small plaza between the bridge over the river and the bridge over Olentangy River Road will allow access to the parking lots on the river bank, Petras said.
The Woody Hayes bridge will cost $8.4 million to build.
The Woody Hayes Bridge is a university project; the Lane Avenue bridge is a Franklin County project. “Our timelines just collided,” Petras said.
The Lane Avenue bridge will be replaced by a cable-stayed bridge.
“We want Lane Avenue to be the major entry to central campus,” Shinn said. The cable-stayed bridge will be distinctive, she said.
Over the summer a temporary pedestrian bridge and the south tower of the bridge will be built.
After the last home football game the original Lane Avenue bridge will be torn down.
“The bridge will not be torn down until the temporary pedestrian bridge is ready,” said James Pajk, Franklin County’s bridge engineer.
“The contractor has until the spring 2004 to complete the project but we hope to have it open fall 2003,” said Dean Ringle, Franklin County’s engineer. Unfortunately, the 2003 football season will be affected, he said.
The new bridge will have six lanes – two west-bound, two east-bound and two turn lanes onto Olentangy River Road, as well as 12-foot sidewalks, Ringle said. Reconstruction of the Olentangy River Road and Lane Avenue intersection, a bike path, stairs to the river and landscaping are also included in the $15 million project.
In addition to being distinctive, the cable-stay bridge is cost efficient and will only require one set of piers in the water, said Pajk. Fewer piers opens up the water way underneath and disrupts river flow less.
To take advantage of the new bridge, the City of Columbus will be widening Lane Avenue east of Olentangy River Road to High Street. The city hopes to begin construction in spring of 2003 and complete construction on Lane Avenue in 2004, said Mark Richard, an engineer for the City of Columbus. The road construction project is expected to cost about $13 million.
“The projects aren’t going as hoped,” said Sarah Blouch, director of Tansportation and Parking. “The bridge is way ahead of the street. (The city) hasn’t even sold the bonds yet to do it. We anticipate the bridge will open, then the city will widen Lane Avenue. It is going to be a construction site for a long time,” she said.
Traffic will be maintained on Lane Avenue during road construction. The new roadway will be five lanes – two lanes each way and a center turn lane. “The Lane-High intersection will be realigned so the two legs of Lane line up,” Richard said. “To do this we will have to demolish the buildings at the northwest corner of Lane and High.”
“We haven’t actually been given a date,” said Sherri Wirth-Fanfulik, manager of UniversiTees. “We’re going day to day. We are having a hard time finding a place to relocate to in the area.”
A left turn lane from Lane Avenue eastbound onto High Street will be added. Woodruff is a busy street because people use it in order to turn left onto High Street, Shinn said. “We hope to see less non-OSU traffic on Woody Hayes” after all the construction is completed, Shinn said.
Construction is set to begin by next spring on two ramps to provide better access to and from Route 315 for the Ohio State Medical Center.
“There is no easy access to the medical center from the south and no easy way to get back on 315 south,” said Ralph Hudson, director of OSU’s Health Services Facilities Planning Office. “During sporting events Lane Avenue can be problematic.”
The OSU Medical Center is a level one trauma center, Hudson said. “We are getting very critical patients, so minutes matter.”
The exit ramp from north bound state Route 315 will cross the river and exit onto Cannon Drive at 9th Avenue. The entrance ramp to Route 315 southbound, which will be on Cannon Drive at 12th Avenue, will cross the river and enter the highway across from the Lennox Town Center.
Some minor disruptions will occur at 12th and Cannon Drive and 9th and Cannon Drive as the ramps are connected to Cannon Drive, but traffic will be maintained during busy hours. “Any closures will be short and during non-peak hours,” said Michelle May, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transporatation.
The ramps will cost an estimated $9.6 million.
For all the road projects the contractors are responsible for adequate signs and for providing any traffic control that might be needed, Blouch said. “We will have our hand in what is done because we get the blame when it doesn’t work,” she said.
