Ohio increasing traffic management for holiday
Drivers dodging orange barrels and heavy congestion as they travel from parades to family barbecues during the Independence Day weekend will get an assist from an expanded “nerve center” of statewide traffic management.
The Ohio Department of Transportation recently moved its team of monitors into a larger traffic management center at its Hilltop headquarters where they control more than 700 cameras on highways in metro and rural areas across the state.
Those cameras will help the monitors keep an eye on the 1.9 million Ohioans the AAA auto club expects to drive the state’s roads between Wednesday and Sunday. That’s about 88,000 more people on the road than over the same holiday weekend in 2018.
Drivers apparently will be undeterred by the 10.5-cent increase in the gas tax that took effect Monday, in part because gas is still cheaper today than it was a year ago. Even with the higher gas tax, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in Columbus on Tuesday was about $2.69 a gallon compared with $2.82 a year ago, according to AAA.
“Most people have already made their holiday plans, so they’re going to go out and they’re going to enjoy it,” said Kimberly Schwind, AAA spokeswoman. “The reason we’re seeing an increase in travel is the economy . ... People have more disposable income and so they’re more confident in the economy
and they’re spending that money on things like travel.”
State Highway Patrol troopers will be on the lookout forimpaired drivers over the weekend, said Lt. Robert Sellers, patrol spokesman. In 2018, Ohio recorded 13,364 drugor alcohol-impaired crashes that resulted in 402 deaths.
Sellers recommended calling #677 if you suspect a drunken driver is on the road. The number will “geolocate” and ring at the nearest Highway Patrol post.
ODOT will try to make travel easier for drivers this weekend by pulling up orange barrels and opening lanes in some work zones, spokesman Matt Bruning said. But in some of itsheaviest construction zones, that won’t be possible.
For instance,anyone heading northeast out of Downtown fromred, White & Boom still will have to contend with the pinch point on Interstate 670 east at I-270, where ODOT is in the middle of rebuilding highway ramps before it reopens its first-ever “Smart Lane” and a new interchange in October.
Drivers leaving Columbus to the south on I-71 and to the west on I-70 also should expect to run into major construction zones.
“In cases where we can, we’ll pull up as many orange barrels, we’ll open as many closed lanes (as possible),” Bruning said.“in some cases, it’s just not possible.”
Bruning said the old traffic management center had become cramped. The new one has a dozen stations, up from 10, and ODOT is seeking to hire additional monitors so each station has a staff member. Under existing staff levels, some monitors are handling multiple metro areas at the same time, he said.
Changes to the traffic management center, including demolition of walls in the old facility, cost about $685,000.
When a monitor sees a problem, he or she can dispatch ODOT’S freeway patrol to help move disabled vehicles or detour traffic around obstructions.
One monitor eventually will be dedicated to watching the 32 cameras on I-670, making sure the shoulder is clear of disabled vehicles and debris so the “Smart Lane” can be opened and speed limits lowered during rush hour.
“As the role of this center changes and morphs from just monitoring traffic to managing traffic, that’s wherereally the need for the expansion came,” Bruning said.