While two major projects begun in 2022 — one on Toledo’s western beltway, the other in Monroe County — will continue through most of the construction season, 2024 is going to be a relatively light year for highway construction in the Toledo area.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has a 34-project lineup in its Bowling Green-based District 2, which spans Williams, Fulton, Henry, Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Seneca counties.
But the aggregate cost is only about $76 million, indicative of their modest size. Several of the recent freeway projects that have narrowed traffic for several years apiece cost much more than that all by themselves.
“There is no huge deal this year. The carryovers are the bulk of what I would classify as major projects,” said Phil Senn, the district construction engineer.
Case in point: the $102 million I-475/U.S. 23 reconstruction and widening that passed its halfway point back around New Year’s Day, when the rebuilt northbound lanes reopened between the Maumee River and Angola Road in Springfield Township. The southbound lanes now are being rebuilt through that zone, work that now closes both southbound entrances from U.S. 24 in Maumee.
Some final paving related to I-75 reconstruction near the Maumee River that was otherwise finished last year will likely begin in late April.
And in Monroe County, the Michigan Department’s of Transportation’s $126 million project to rebuild I-75 between Erie and Mortar Creek roads is into the last of its three construction seasons, with traffic there also flipped to part of the northbound side while the southbound lanes are rebuilt. Several ramps and the Luna Pier Road bridge are closed for varying durations.
Off the freeways, another continuing project in Maumee will have a new detour starting Monday. Work at the Anthony Wayne Trail and Ford Street will close Ford’s easterly leg for up to 30 days. Once that side of the intersection is finished, Ford’s westerly leg will be closed for reconstruction.
The latter Ford closing is likely to be more disruptive, considering the volume of trucks using that part of the street. The shortest detour available to trucks is the Trail, Conant Street, and Illinois Avenue, but that’s likely to be congested. Expect lots of cut-through traffic on Thurston Avenue, and possibly on Medical Center Parkway too.
“Hopefully we will not need the full 30 days” to complete the Ford intersection’s east side, Mr. Senn said. The west side will take longer because it includes minor widening and modifying driveway curb cuts, he said.
A new project that could cause the biggest traffic hassle is a $13.9 million resurfacing and lighting and median replacement on I-280 from the area of the Woodville/Curtice interchange in Northwood up to the Navarre Avenue interchange in Oregon.
Work has begun there with two lanes maintained in both directions, but northbound I-280 will be reduced to a single lane from near Northwood High School up to Navarre starting about April 10 and lasting for about four months.
Other resurfacing projects on I-75 and State Rt. 795 will primarily involve night work, Mr. Senn said.
A one-inch overlay on I-75 between State Rt. 199 and Glenwood Road in Rossford is actually part of a $6.25 million contract begun last fall with bridge repairs along I-475/U.S. 23 in Perrysburg.
“It’s a summertime job. It’s supposed to be done by the end of August,” Mr. Senn said. “But it’s got to play nice with Lime City.”
That’s a reference to the Rossford overpass that an overheight truck struck early last year, where work has begun to repair, raise, and slightly widen the bridge. Variable lane closings will be needed when the existing bridge deck is demolished and during installation of several new beams.
“It’s a little unique. Being a design-build, we didn’t dictate the maintenance of traffic,” Mr. Senn said to explain why there’s no firm schedule yet for lane closings.
The biggest concern, he said, was getting steel beams fabricated and delivered for the structure, so the contractor has been allowed to prioritize the schedule around that.
The Route 795 paving will start in late April and cover nine miles from I-75 to State Rt. 51 in Ottawa County, so it will take most of the year to complete. It will include short-term ramp closings at the I-75 and I-280 interchanges and 10-day closings of the ramps at East Broadway in Lake Township, Mr. Senn said.
Route 795’s four-lane section will have single-lane closings for paving, while the section east of Lemoyne Road that is only two lanes will require flag zones. The project also will include replacing traffic signals at Oregon Road, while the lights at Route 795 and Lime City Road will be replaced under a separate contract.
The ongoing widening of State Rt. 53 near Catawba Island in Ottawa County, meanwhile, is on schedule for the closed ramps at State Rt. 2 to reopen before Memorial Day, Mr. Senn said. A separate, $5.5 million project to resurface State Rt. 163 around the Marblehead Peninsula won’t start until after Labor Day, he said.
And in Sandusky County, ODOT has a $4 million contract awarded for resurfacing 12.92 miles of U.S. 6 between U.S. 23 and Route 53 southwest of Fremont. Mr. Senn said that will start mid-spring and be done by year’s end.
Northwest Ohio’s largest new ODOT project, a $30.8 million reconstruction of I-75’s Hancock County Road 99 interchange north of Findlay, is under way but isn’t expected to have major long-term impacts on freeway traffic. Three lanes are expected to reopen most of the time until completion next year, with the main exceptions during beam placement for bridges and demolition work on the existing Road 99 bridge.
In Monroe and Lenawee counties, the only Michigan Department of Transportation project besides I-75 work expected to substantially affect traffic is the overhaul of a U.S. 223 bridge over railroad tracks on the southeast side of Adrian, said Aaron Jenkins, a district spokesman in Jackson.
That $3.3 million project between Treat Highway and Division Street will start in late June, extend into autumn, and reduce U.S. 223 to one lane governed by temporary traffic signals, Mr. Jenkins said.
The Ohio Turnpike’s $254 million construction program for 2024 includes several repaving zones in northwest Ohio.
A 10-mile repaving section in Wood County stretching east from Milepost 64 at the I-75 interchange in Rossford past the I-280/State Rt. 420 interchange in Lake Township will include a deck overlay for the bridge over I-280, while four miles in Lucas County near and east of the Swanton interchange also will be repaved.
A resurfacing project that began last year between Milepost 14, just east of the Bryan exit, and Milepost 27, two miles east of the Archbold exit, is scheduled to continue. The turnpike also plans to rebuild the interchange pavement at the Wauseon interchange.
Overpass bridge decks, meanwhile, are scheduled for replacement at Wagoneer, Fought, Shannon, Carley, Copp, and Northwest-Southwest roads in Sandusky County and at State Rt. 269, Deyo Road, and State Rts. 99 and 13 in Erie County.
Most Popular
Comments / 0