Mound Street project to make tough driving in downtown Columbus
Construction plan is to improve I-70/71, make it safer.
Rhonda Ferguson already is frustrated with dodging orange barrels and driving in the jammed traffic of I-71 northbound after she leaves her Grove City home for her job in downtown Columbus.
Starting March 5, her commute will become even more of a headache when Mound Street, which she uses to get to a Franklin County garage to park her car during work, permanently becomes a one-way street and will have fewer lanes during construction.
“That’s going to be yet another barrier for me getting to work,” Ferguson, 51, said of her job as accounting finance manager at the Franklin County Municipal Court. “It just seems like the construction is compounded because it’s happening everywhere.”
The Ohio Department of Transportation, as part of a larger project, is converting a portion of Mound Street that is two way into oneway westbound.
Now, Mound Street runs east and west from 4th Street to the east until Mound dead ends at railroad tracks just west of Short Street to west. Beginning March 5, that section permanently will be converted to a one-way route from 4th to Front streets, with limited lanes as construction crews work on it.
That’s an especially nightmarish scenario for the thousands of county workers and members of the public going to the courthouse. Those buildings are bisected by Mound Street, immediately west of High Street.
“It’s going to impact the general conducting of business in the county complex,” Franklin County Administrator Kenneth Wilson said of the Mound Street construction.
Those called for jury duty, many not used to driving in that area, could be especially affected.
“Jurors, they struggle so much now,” Ferguson said.
Some also park in the county-owned garage on Mound Street, a half-block east of the county complex. The changes mean those who exit the garage onto Mound Street no longer will be able to turn east toward 4th Street. They must turn west and navigate a series of one-way streets to eventually Accounting finance manager at Franklin County Municipal Court
go east.
Government “employees definitely will be impacted by that,” Ferguson said. “Already, it’s a wait to get out of the garage at certain times.”
Improvements to Mound Street between High and 4th streets include new brick crosswalks, granite curbs, lighting, landscaping and decorative signals. Construction is expected to be completed in October or November, ODOT said.
The Mound Street construction is part of a plan to improve Interstate-70/71 through downtown and make it safer. Traffic that empties from the interstate onto some downtown streets also has to be addressed, so some street directions have to be changed.
“We realize construction happens,” Wilson said, “and we want to make this as painless as possible.”
‘That’s going to be yet another barrier for me getting to work. It just seems like the construction is compounded because it’s happening everywhere.’ Rhonda Ferguson
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