The construction of the new Hesby Drive leading into the Galion City Schools campus is on schedule for completion before the start of school and ready to pave soon, according to Mayor Tom O’Leary.
Hesby Drive, named for the estate owner Philip Hesby, will branch off from Bucyrus Road (also known as Harding Way West) and run north into the Galion City Schools campus before opening into the parking lot of the high school and middle school. The road will serve as a key detour route as the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) replaces the bridge on Portland Way, and O’Leary said he is excited for the project’s completion.
“It looks in real good shape, I think it will be ready to pave after we get some of that stabilization in,” said O’Leary. “We ought to be on schedule to be completed prior to school opening. As the state project moves along slowly, it’s looking good that our local road will be open before the bridge goes out.”
Due to traffic concerns, the opening of Hesby Drive before the start of school at the end of August has now become a bigger imperative than completing the road before the Portland Way bridge is out of service. The bridge is set to go out around August 1 and construction will take place over 90 days.
“It’s really difficult to get in and out of that school the way it is now, but all the traffic at that point would have to come through Heise Park, and it was just not an acceptable alternative and wouldn’t work for the schools at all,” said O’Leary.
Entrances to the school would then be accessible off of Heise Park Drive, which has a traffic signal, and off of Hesby Drive, which opens to Bucyrus Road between the Burger King and Pizza Hut. Currently there are no talks of erecting a traffic signal at the intersection of Hesby Drive and Bucyrus Road, however O’Leary noted due to some changes along Bucyrus Road there have been initial conversations with the line department about the necessity of street lights.
“It is likely we’ll be securing a firm to do a traffic study that will look at, among other things, that Bucyrus Road/Harding Way West corridor,” said O’Leary. “However, with the little bit I know about traffic studies and traffic signal warranting, I’ll be surprised if a traffic signal is warranted simply because of the school traffic.”
O’Leary explained a traffic study is required by ODOT to project traffic patterns over the next 25 years. He guessed the need of a traffic signal would come due to the recent investment in Avita Health System generating more traffic along the Bucyrus Road corridor.
In addition to traffic congestion, Galion merchants have raised concerns about their businesses during the construction of the Portland Way bridge. About 15 businesses will be affected during the construction, when access from the 598 corridor will be limited.
“There has been a request for another public meeting; the merchant communities are concerned about the timing and what will happen to their business with the bridge,” said O’Leary. “A date will be set soon. The community generally and certainly the merchants of the business will change a lot when the bridge goes out of service. At the meeting the community will be updated on what to expect in terms of the timeline.”
Complaints have also been raised about the piles of debris currently accumulating along the Hesby Drive construction site. However, O’Leary clarified the debris piles have not come from the Hesby Drive construction itself.
“The two piles to the south are clearly construction debris, the third pile is a large mound of earth, and it’s obvious these were brought to the site,” said O’Leary. “It is important to point out that the criticism coming from private citizens is criticism about materials were brought to the state either physically by the critics, or with the permission of the underlying property owner. It is a problem but it’s not a problem for the city, it’s a problem for the estate.”
