From down under
As construction continues on the I-270 interchange at Rt. 23, we take a trip beneath the surface
Drivers on Rt. 23 near the I-270 interchange are used to seeing two things: brake lights and orange barrels.
What’s tougher to grasp from the driver’s seat, though, is the progress happening beneath the surface. In some places, that’s 30 feet below ground.
Since May, construction crews have been digging out a channel that will carry northbound express lanes for about a mile, from I-270 to north of Flint Road on the Far North Side.
Excavation is about 70 percent finished, and the construction team is anchoring walls and building bridges over what will be Ohio’s first traffic trench.
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The Dispatch was given a behind-the-barriers tour of the trench on Friday.
The Ohio Department of Transportation is digging the trench, which will accommodate two northbound express lanes. Two other northbound lanes and four southbound lanes will be maintained at ground level.
As part of the same project to alleviate congestion, a stretch of Rt. 23 north of the trench is being widened, and the I-270/Rt. 23 interchange is being rebuilt.
It all adds up to $80 million and three years of work.
“It’s a tight corridor,” said Greg Channel, ODOT’s project engineer. “We have very little right of way to work with.”
The trench has reached its 30-foot maximum depth at both ends, but the middle still needs to be excavated. For workers in the deeper recesses, cars whiz by overhead, but only their tops are visible over the barriers that keep drivers from seeing below.
Crews will continue digging through the winter, Channel said. The trench should be open to traffic at the end of August — more than a year before the rest of the project is done.
Drivers who opt to take the trench won’t have to stop at traffic lights, which should ease some of the traffic that builds up, Channel said.
While a bridge could have had the same result, ODOT chose a trench that wouldn’t change the view and character of the area, he said.
“Initially it’s a larger investment, but in the long run, it’s more efficient” and will require less maintenance, ODOT spokeswoman Nancy Burton said.
The trench is 36 feet wide, with a 10-foot shoulder on the right and a 4-foot shoulder on the left. It can accommodate city snowplows. Concrete walls that are a foot thick will be reinforced with steel. Fire hydrants will be flush with the surface of the trench.
Water that flows into the trench will be channeled into catch basins and a 24-inch drainage pipe. During construction, crews have had to dig sump holes and pump water out of the trench, Channel said.
By taking the trench, drivers will avoid three local intersections: Dimension Drive, Campus View Boulevard and Flint Road. Campus View and Flint both have traffic lights.
Bridges at Campus View and Flint will carry cars over the trench. Crews are finishing the first half of the Campus View bridge and eventually will shift traffic onto the new deck to start work on the second half.
The widening of Rt. 23 north of the trench will be finished and new lanes open by the end of the year, Channel said.
New ramps at the interchange have opened, and a third of the Rt. 23 bridge over I-270 has been demolished. Once that third is rebuilt, ODOT will remove and rebuild the rest of the bridge.
The whole project should be finished in the fall of 2016.