State approves engineering design for two traffic congested areas
PICKERINGTON — Motorists may get some relief in the coming years at two local traffic logjams.
The state’s Transportation Review Advisory Council approved funding for engineering design work to ease major traffic congestion on Ohio 256 and at the U.S. 33/Pickerington Road intersection.
The state will pay $5 million for the engineering design work for the Ohio 256 problem and $1.5 million at U.S. 33/ Pickerington Road for engineering design work.
Fairfield County commissioner Jeff Fix, county engineer Jeremiah Upp, consultant Bill Lozier and Pickerington city manager Greg Butcher asked TRAC for help solving the Ohio 256 problem in
May. They want the state to add another entrance and exit on I-70 past Ohio 256 to the east so that there will be an alleviation of all the congestion on Ohio 256.
“This is the first big step and first big chunk of money that’s getting spent on this project,” Upp said of Ohio 256. “Typically, when ODOT gets to the point where they fund a project for design, it will get funded for construction.”
He said the Ohio 256 project would be a huge traffic relief for Pickerington residents and also on surrounding roadways. Upp said the surrounding roads will be able to handle traffic flow should ODOT complete the project.
TRAC is instrumental in what construction projects the Ohio Department of Transportation will pursue.
“This is significant as up until a year or so ago, this project was on the outside of ODOT’S radar,” Butcher said.
That area is certainly heavily traveled as the average daily traffic along I-70, west of Ohio 256 is nearly 99,000 based on a 24-hour period, ODOT said. It said there are 51,671 vehicles on Ohio 256 in Pickerington approaching the interchange each day.
Fix previously said the Ohio 256 work would cost about $80 million. The county will next year ask ODOT to fund the full construction for Ohio 256 and U.S. 33/Pickerington Road.
“Anybody who travels on Route (Ohio) 256 every day as I’ve done for years to get to and from work in Franklin County and beyond knows that there’s just way too much traffic for that road to handle,” Fix said. “So having another way to get onto the freeway is going to be a big deal in this part of the county.”
“We’re really excited about ODOT finally paying some attention to us, which is great and much appreciated,” he said. “We can’t wait for this to happen. It’s probably going to be a few years yet for all of it to come to fruition. But the idea that we’re finally able to get that moving is a big deal to all of Fairfield County and particularly to the northwest part.”
Officials have also talked for years about replacing the traffic light at U.S. 33/Pickerington Road with an interchange to alleviate congestion there. Upp said that project should cost around $70 million.
“To my knowledge that project is still a priority and still slated to be pushed into TRAC and get constructed as soon as possible,” Upp said.
He said the design work could start on both should begin next year.