Engineer plans pricey construction season
Butler County official: $43M in road work will make it most expensive ever.
The Butler County Engineer’s Office road work plan for this year totals $43 million, the largest it has undertaken in Engineer Greg Wilkens’ 20-year career with the county.
Wilkens made his annual presentation to the county commissioners Monday and outlined the interchange, intersection, bridge and other improvement projects he’ll be directing this year.
“This is the largest capital improvement year that I’ve had in my history as county engineer and I think in the history of the office,” Wilkens said. “We’ve got over $43 million worth of projects which is huge.”
The biggest chunk of money is $24.3 million to fix the sometimes tricky Liberty Way interchange at Ohio 129 and Interstate 75. Local tax increment financing (TIF) money will cover around $11.6 million, the federal government is providing an equal match, plus $1.1 million is coming from the state.
Wilkens said part of the project involves extending Ohio 129 to a new Cox Road roundabout and modifying the I-75 ramps, so there won’t be crisscrossing traffic. The two-year construction project was budgeted at $23 million but Wilkens told the Journal-News the state wanted him to fold an I-75 ramp paving project into his
Road work