MANSFIELD, Ohio — The advisory committee for the U.S. 30 improvement project held their seventh meeting Monday, discussing project details and plans for the future.
“I think we’re coming to the conclusion of some things here,” said Fred Seling, Engineering Associates project manager. “We’ve been through a lot. The project has evolved quite a bit–we’ve split it into two, but we’re finally getting to a place where I think we’re really moving ahead in a major way.”
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) District 3 hosted the committee, comprised of local and state officials, business leaders, and community representatives.
Seling summarized the public meeting that was held March 31. Of the approximate 80 people who attended the meeting, 10 submitted written comments and six made public comments (one person did both).
The main concerns that were raised dealt with removal of U.S. 30 westbound to the state Route 39 northbound ramp, construction of a cul-de-sac on Longview Avenue, noise barriers, and combination of state Route 13 and state Route 545 interchanges and loss of access to state Route 545.
Following that meeting, ODOT District 3 and the project team staff met May 4 to discuss comments received from the public meeting and to determine if adequate information was available to make decisions relative to proposed design recommendations.
Seling reviewed the recommendations for the advisory committee. The recommendations pertained to the state Route 39 interchange, state Route 13 to state Route 545 connector road, state Route 545 lane reduction, and noise barriers.
State Route 39 interchange recommendations:
- Reduce state Route 39 from four lanes to three lanes (recommendation approved).
- Remove Longview Avenue connection with state Route 39 ramps and construct a cul-de-sac (recommendation approved with a follow-up investigation of construction of providing emergency vehicle access from state Route 39 ramps to Longview Avenue via an emergency vehicle access gate).
- Combine the two U.S. 30 westbound exit ramps into one ramp (recommendation approved with the inclusion of a traffic signal at the intersection of the ramp and state Route 39).
- Realign Longview Avenue east of the interchange (recommendation approved–the project team will meet with AK Steel and other impacted businesses to coordinate maintenance of traffic).
Improvements to the state Route 39 interchange will be completed during the first phase of the project.
The U.S. 30 improvement project as a whole costs $118 million and is being 100 percent funded by ODOT.
U.S. 30 was originally constructed in 1956 and needs to be updated to modern design standards. The bridges and pavement are in poor condition and an updated design will help reduce the number and severity of crashes, according to officials. In addition to replacing the pavement, ODOT wants to widen the four lanes and the shoulders, replace, remove or reconstruct bridges, and carry out other efforts to make driving conditions safer.
With regard to noise barriers, Seling said studies show that three separate noise barriers are “feasible and reasonable.”
Noise barrier one, located along the south side of U.S. 30 between Trimble Road and state Route 39, is 4,024 feet long and costs $1,509,000. Noise barrier one has received an adequate number of positive responses necessary for construction. The preferred wall type is Ashlar Grey.
Noise barriers two and three, located along the north and south sides of U.S. 30 between state Route 39 and Bowman Street, have not yet received an adequate number of positive responses; however, there are still outstanding votes to be received before voting is concluded. These may or may not be constructed.
Looking ahead, Seling said studies will be completed during the final design phase of the project to evaluate alternatives to maintain traffic during construction of the west project (state Route 309 to state Route 13). He said ODOT guidelines recommend two lanes of traffic in each direction to be maintained during construction on U.S. 30, if possible.
He said contraflow is the likely method to maintain traffic based on conceptual studies. Contraflow maintains three lanes of traffic on one side of the median and one lane of traffic on the other side of the median during construction.
Additional updates:
- An interchange modification study for changes at the state Route 39 interchange has been submitted for review.
- A proposal to complete the final design for the west project has been submitted for review. The project team anticipates beginning this work soon.
- Study work and stakeholder meetings will continue on the east project (state Route 13 to Fifth Avenue).
- Response letters to the public meeting written and verbal comments will be sent soon.
- Another public meeting will be held for the west project as more design details are finalized to inform stakeholder of the final design details and impacts.
- A public meeting to present east project details will be held when more details are available.
- Construction is scheduled to begin in 2019 for the west project ($60 million) and 2020 for the east project ($58 million).
