70/71 Split Fix Met With Community Contempt
The Ohio Department of Transportation held a Stakeholder Meeting Announcement last night at the Lincoln Theatre to provide an update on the I-70/71 “Split Fix” Project. Most of the major components of the project remained unchanged from announcements that took place in January, but some new details were provided regarding the I-670-style design of the highway trenches, the new feeder streets, and the beautification and streetscaping efforts.
The Q&A/Feedback session that followed the presentation revealed that few people seemed happy with the project at all.
Some folks questioned the methods behind deciding which portions of the streets would get trees, while others expressed displeasure about the lack of highway caps that had been promised by ODOT earlier in the project’s lifespan. ODOT officials were quick to state that the new retaining walls would be constructed for highway cap development in the future if funds were to become available, and added that the greenspaces, trees, and other beautification efforts were not completely finalized at this point in time.
The first phase of the project is slated to begin sometime in 2010 with work starting along I-71 between I-670 and Spring Street. ODOT officials said that community involvement would be an ongoing process and that new design standards could be worked out with the City of Columbus.
Attendees of the meeting were sent home with comment/feedback forms seeking input on the design standards being introduced at the meeting. For anyone else interested in supplying additional feedback to ODOT, the comments forms are being sent to Ferzan Ahmed, Project Manager, ODOT District 6, 400 E. William Street, Delaware, OH, 43015 - Phone: 740-833-8367 - Fax: 740-887-4605 - email: Ferzan.Ahmed@dot.state.oh.us.
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Related Tags: Development • downtown • highway caps • highways • I70/I71 • odot • the split • Transit • transportation
November 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am
“The Q&A/Feedback session that followed the presentation revealed that few people seemed happy with the project at all.”
I literally LOL’d.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:09 am
I just wish they’d get the damn thing built already! This has to be the longest, most drawn out project ever - ODOT fail.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:42 am
The only thing that got me excited about this project were the Caps. I need to see at least one built.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Very dissappointing……but I’m getting used to that around here.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Patch Says: I literally LOL’d.
It was a pretty amusing meeting. Around 50 in attendance and I really didn’t hear anyone say anything positive about the project.
jpizzow Says: Very dissappointing……but I’m getting used to that around here.
Why disappointing? Everyone in attendance at this meeting took a stand against the problems with this project. I think we’ll end up with something better as a result. I’ve posted some more thoughts here.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:57 am
The dispatch covered this meeting in today’s paper: LINK
I’m also growing disappointed in the way this is unfolding, and the lack of caps. I also really feel like the southern portion will not actually get built due to budgetary problems.
The tree argument in the paper was confusing. ODOT says there feeder roads are to be 25 mph but we can’t have many trees (or trees larger than 4 inches in width) because of safety concern and federal highway standards, thus making the feeders look and feel more like highways (which will mean people driving much faster than 25mph).
November 10th, 2009 at 10:10 am
One thing I forgot to question at the meeting last night… the rendering shown included bike plans along Parsons Avenue between Main Street and headed up toward Town/Bryden. I’m not sure if they were longer than that one block, but that’s about all they showed of it. If that is the case, then what’s the point of one block’s worth of bike lanes?
November 10th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Exactly when is this all supposed to be complete? 2017-2020? We could have a pretty extesive light rail system by then!! UMPH!
I hope they design this thing so it doesn’t have to get worked on again for 100 years!
November 10th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I’m glad that those that were able to attend spoke out against this disappointing turn of events from ODOT.
I basically live right along I-71 in the Discovery District, and I’ll be the first to admit that this corridor needs major improvement. If we are to compare this stretch to the work that was done on I-71 along the Riverfront in Cincinnati, I think everyone will agree that we’ve got a long way to go from asthetic standpoint alone. (And that doesn’t even include caps).
These sections of I-70 and I-71 are among the highest traveled in Ohio, and look among the worst, both from the view of those on the highway, and those above the highway. I would really love to see some more effort on ODOT’s part to try and separate the city from the noisy highway; I think we all really benefit from this in the long run.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I hope ODOT doesn’t try to use the economy as an excuse to pull funding for caps. I think caps over High, 3rd and Town are the more likely than anything else to help downtown Columbus revitalize. The mayor and city council should exert as much pressure as is humanly possible to get this done.
And the “feeder streets” need to be an integrated part of the urban landscape, not elongated on-ramps with some trees.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Just as I suspected, ODOT promises big and delivers nothing. I can’t believe they’re not going to do ANY caps, that’s just outrageous. I understand that every crossing of the freeway can’t have one for money reasons but c’mon. They could at least try to pretened they care about the area and put up one.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Trees are a safety hazard now? What about lamp posts and fire hydrants. Why don’t we just move everything away from the road about twenty feet all over Columbus so cars can roam freely. While we are at it. Lets get rid of those stupid bike racks and benches. And it should be mandatory to have a drive through if you want to operate a business.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:46 am
One concern that I was going to raise at the meeting last night, and someone else touched upon it before I got the mic, is the fact that while ODOT sounds committed to making these new “feeder streets” into nice urban city streets (however that actually shapes up) they’re doing nothing to address what is to be done with the old feeder streets. This whole project will redirect traffic flow off of our north-south one-way feeder pairs of Third & Fourth and east-west one-way pairs of Spring and Long. Once upon a time, those were nice vibrant city streets too, and they were converted one way to serve as highway feeders. Now that ODOT is shifting the traffic elsewhere, I feel like these streets are being cast aside, leaving it up to the City of Columbus to completely invest in renewing them if they want to turn them back into their original state once again.
On a more selfish note, I’m wondering what will be done with my street (Hamilton Ave between Long & Spring). It’s currently used as a fairly heavily trafficked through-street, as it’s used both as an exit from 71-South to Spring to the East Side as well as an entrance from East Side through Mt. Vernon to get to the 71N ramp at Long. We have a lot of emergency vehicles who use our street as it’s one of the main wide through streets between Long & Spring/Mt Vernon on the Near East Side. Our street was widened to accomodate this extra traffic, and currently is roughly 5 cars wide (street parking on both sides, two travel lanes and a turn lane). What happens when a lot of this traffic gets diverted to the feeders of “New Parsons” and “New Lester” running next to 71? Do we get to narrow Hamilton back to where it was and reclaim some of the yardspace that was removed 50 years ago? Anne just dug up an old photo of our next door neighbor’s house and we were surprised to see an extra 10 feet of greenspace in front of our sidewalk that is currently streetspace.
There are at least two dozen other streets that could use these same types of improvements to go along with this project, and it seems like ODOT has nothing on the agenda for them. If they can spend tens of millions retrofitting highway walls for the sake of aesthetics in the suburbs I don’t see why they can’t they can’t budget some money for these types of neighborhood aesthetics for city dwellers as well.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:49 am
thepiece Says: The dispatch covered this meeting in today’s paper: LINK
I sat behind Chuck at the meeting and chatted with him about the whole ordeal. I’m glad the Dispatch used his quote, because he really hit the nail on the head:
Chuck Hootman, 36, who is part-owner of a Downtown restaurant, said the 2 percent of project costs that ODOT has allocated for enhancements such as benches and decorative fencing and lighting isn’t enough, though it’s double what’s usually set aside.
“They said they usually allocate 1 percent,” Hootman said. “Well, that’s because most of the projects usually go through cornfields. They’re coming through a city. We should at least get 5 to 10 percent.”
November 10th, 2009 at 11:08 am
+1 Joev - Feeder streets should be streets than just happen to connect to the freeway. I understand that trees planted at the edge of an interstate are a safety issue but that standard needs to be thrown out when design speeds are lower. The tree logic means that all street trees greater than a 4″ caliper need to be removed on Summit, 4th and Indianola since that is U.S. Route 23. Also, trees grow. If a tree is planted with a 2″ caliper, does that mean it needs to be cut down when it reaches 4″?
EDIT: After reading the Dispatch article, the feds don’t care too much about trees. ODOT is just beign stubborn.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Got this from Ferzan Ahmed at ODOT.
Dear Sir:
The first phase, 670-71 includes a cap on Spring.
The second phase includes two caps on Long.
Subsequent phases will have more caps.
Some of the other amenities include wider sidewalks, decorative fencing on bridges, decorative lighting and tree lawns and green space.
Thank you for your inquiry. Please contact me by email or phone if you have any other questions.
Ferzan Ahmed
November 10th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I will wait to see the renderings, but I believe this project is starting 3 years too late. Back in ‘07 this project would have had no problem getting caps placed in. Now, I believe the current economy is effecting this project greatly. I am pleased that reaction yesterday was so strong and maybe the right adjustments will be made. ODOT does think too short term.
One item of concern, since ODOT is taking this approach on phase I good luck in getting the south side of downtown’s project started at all. So, german village should be divided for yet another generation.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
When they first constructed this mess of a highway they went through the city and tore down many historical buildings and seperated alot of neighborhoods. Are they going to make an even wider gap by tearing down buidlings or work with the space they have?
November 10th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
coolbuckeye Says: Got this from Ferzan Ahmed at ODOT.
Weird. Because last night we were specifically told that there would be no caps unless additional funds were made available after the project was complete.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
So let me get this straight, we get less streetscaping, NO caps and the costs have ballooned to $1. 6 billion? Like I said before, very dissappointing.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
@Urbanboi
“Are they going to make an even wider gap by tearing down buidlings or work with the space they have?”
Last I heard they were going to have to knockdown a descent amount of the buildings on Parsons Ave around Carabar and ET Paul.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
futureman Says: Last I heard they were going to have to knockdown a descent amount of the buildings on Parsons Ave around Carabar and ET Paul.
No, just those two. I believe those are the only buildings that will be lost for this project, although there will probably be a few snippets of land here and there that come from the Public Health Department’s front lawn, some land by the Africentric School, and bits of Dodge Park & the Audubon.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I asked Ferzan what, if any, improvements will be made to this project after the feedback they have received after the past presentation and the email I posted was his response. Was he just trying to tell me what I wanted to hear?
November 10th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I can’t believe you’d do a project for $1.6 billion in the capital city of a state and not have it be first rate. Talk about pennywise, pound foolish.
November 10th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Really Wish I could have attended but the time of the meeting made it basically impossible.
Unfortunately the project seems to be devolving in the way I initially feared. I really think the public really misunderstood how committed ODOT was to Caps.
According to ODOT engineer I talked to in 2007, the Caps are designated as a wholly separate project that can occur simultaneously as the split fix. And while ODOT would be happy to design around them but the Caps would require funding by the City (ODOT would/may fund a portion of it but not all). But bottomline is Caps are considered optional by ODOT. Perhaps that’s changed but I doubt it.
They also told me that the project only has a 15 year viability life once completed before further action would be needed to alleviate new congestion.
This concerns me a great deal. The inner city and much othe downtown residential population is going to heavily inconvenienced by this project for years upon years by construction for something that apparently won’t even last very long. Furthermore small businesses near massive ongoing freeway construction projects tend to have insanely high failure rates. One of the reason the Short North was so cheap in the 1980’s was that 670 construction debacle killed the area. I’d hate to think we’d go to this all this trouble for something that may not even do what it’s intended to.
Furthermore we end up with a net gain of two feeder streets and they happen to be where land prices are among the most affordable and there is already existing heavy residential concentration already. I really don’t see how the city can unfeeder third and fourth, seems to me the city is still going to need them for workers to get to mound/fulton. That doesn’t help downtown get new residents by further dissecting downtown with feeder streets.
When I get a chance I’ll email Ferzan and post any comments about my concerns he has here.