Council joins fight against ODOT plan

Madison Village Council has joined the fight to prevent a state agency from following through with a plan to reduce the number of lanes on Route 20 in the easternmost section of Madison Township.

Village Council, at its March 9 meeting, unanimously approved a resolution opposing a project proposed by the Ohio Department of Transportation District 12 that would transform Route 20 between Route 528 and County Line Road into a three-lane highway from its current four-lane setup.

Route 20 from Route 528 to County Line Road is comprised of two eastbound and two

westbound lanes. ODOT plans to transform that part into a three-lane highway — consisting of an eastbound and westbound lane along with a center lane allowing left turns in both directions.

Village Council, in its resolution, stated that it opposes the lane-reduction plan because it is “contrary to the best interest of the community.”

Council also indicated its desire to join with neighboring communities “in objecting to the reconfiguration of U.S. Route 20 so as not to inhibit future commerce, and to not jeopardize the safe evacuation of all persons from the area in the event of both man-made and naturally occurring catastrophes,” the resolution states.

In attendance at the March 9 meeting were Madison Township Trustees Max Anderson Jr. and Kenneth Gauntner Jr. They, along with fellow township Trustee Pete Wayman have promised to work diligently to convince ODOT to keep the four-lane format of Route 20 between Route 528 and County Line Road.

“(Trustees) look at it as not just a Madison Township issue, even though this section of Route 20 is in the township,” Gauntner said. “It’s really a Madison community issue. It doesn’t just affect the township, it affects the village and village residents at all who travel that (section of Route 20).”

Trustees already enlisted the help of Lake County commissioners, who in late February also approved a resolution expressing their opposition to the lane reduction.

“I think that taking a four-lane road and reducing it to three lanes is trying to fix something that’s not broke,” Gauntner said, as he addressed Madison Village Council before it acted on the resolution.

Gauntner supported his position by sharing crash statistics from the township Police Department from the past 26 months, which he says shows that Route 20 between Route 528 and County Line Road already is “a very safe stretch of highway.”

In addition, Gauntner noted that both he and township Police Chief Matt Byers speculate that reducing the targeted portion of Route 20 to one eastbound and westbound lanes, along with a center turn lane, may end up creating more traffic and dangerous conditions on other township roads.

“It’s going to force a lot of people who live down north, instead of coming up to 20 in the morning to go work and get in that single-file drive, they’re going to start taking Chapel Road, and if they’re south of 20, they’re going to start taking Middle Ridge, and I think we’re going to see some increased accidents on those roads,” Gauntner said.

Gauntner said it’s also worrisome to think of traffic congestion that could occur on a reconfigured threelane section of Route 20 if there was a regional evacuation prompted by an emergency at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant in North Perry Village.

In fact, the resolution approved by Madison Village Council points out that the Lake County Radiological Emergency Response Plan identifies Route 20 as the primary evacuation route to the east for Madison residents.

The resolution also states that “should an incident occur

at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant which requires evacuation, Madison School District faculty and students will be transported, via U.S. Route 20, in school buses, to receiving schools in the city of Ashtabula.”

ODOT District 12 previously stated that it welcomes public comments on the project and will consider all submissions in conjunction with its analysis of a recently completed traffic study on the section of Route 20 between Route 528 and County Line Road.

“Once we have all feedback and a final recommendation after analyzing the traffic study, we’ll select a preferred plan,” ODOT District 12 spokesman Brent Kovacs said.

In fact, Kovacs said people desiring to formally comment on the project can express their views through a feature available on ODOT’s website, transportation.ohio.gov, under ODOT Projects.

He anticipates that a final plan will be chosen this spring for resurfacing, restriping and reconfiguring Route 20 between Route 528 and County Line Road.

ODOT’s website states that the project is scheduled to begin in spring of 2021 and be completed during the fall of the same year.

Madison Township trustees passed a similar resolution at their March 10 meeting.

“We’ll continue to fight the fight,” he said.

Anderson, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude to Village Council for its willingness to take a similar stand on the lane-reduction plan.

“To me this is a major issue, I want to thank you guys for passing this resolution and working together as a community and for the residents,” he said.