A new safety grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation will bring the total infrastructure funding to widen and improve Pickerington roadways within the next several years to nearly $13 million.
ODOT recently awarded the City a $3.5 million safety grant to construct additional lanes on Refugee Road at the state Rt. 256 intersection.
While the timeline for implementation of the latest grant was still being finalized at press time, City Engineer Scott Tourville said work on the intersection would begin late 2017.
“The intersection of Refugee/Rt. 256 is continually one of the more dangerous intersections in the City in terms of number of crashes,” Tourville said. “We have been able to show that increasing the capacity of the intersection by adding more lanes should reduce the number of accidents.”
Tourville said the money from the new safety grant will be used with the $4.4 million tax incremental financing (TIF) that OhioHealth agreed to provide the City as part of its commitment to the City prior to beginning construction on its medical complex on Refugee Road.
“We anticipate grouping this money together to ensure the project can widen the Refugee corridor as much as possible,” Tourville said. “We’re also applying to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission for additional funds to allow us to increase the scope of the widening.”
The City anticipates the Refugee project will widen the road from the corporation limit near the new Grace Fellowship church to the corporation limit near the entryway to Giant Eagle and Goodyear Auto Service Center.
In addition to roadway improvements to the Refugee corridor, ODOT previously awarded the City a $5 million safety grant for work on Rt. 256, which will begin next year.
The Rt. 256 project will add an additional third southbound lane from state Rt. 204 to the traffic signal at the entrance to Kroger and Giant Eagle. The grant will also provide for a second northbound through lane from just north of the Rt. 204 traffic signal to the Interstate 70 eastbound entry ramp, upgraded signage and traffic signals, and landscaped medians to ease the flow of traffic.
While all these improvements will impact the flow of traffic until work is completed, Tourville said the City will be doing everything possible to reduce disruptions to motorists and businesses and communicate to residents when road work is underway.
“These construction provisions include restrictions when lanes can be closed, and coordination with property and business owners on construction-related driveway impacts,” Tourville said. “The state Rt. 256 project will require all lanes open during the predominant direction of travel during the morning and evening rush hours.”
Improvements to each corridor will take up to one year to complete.
And while these projects can cause some expected delays, once the work is done, City officials said, the infrastructure improvements will make traveling in and out of Pickerington easier and safer for many decades.
