Work
on a long-planned upgrade to the Haskins Road (Ohio 64) and West Poe
Road intersection in Bowling Green will begin April 7, weather
permitting.
Although
Poe Road will remain open to traffic, there will be no access to
Haskins Road, either north or south, from the intersection for 30 days.
"Access
to properties and businesses will be maintained throughout
construction, although facilities with multiple driveways may be limited
to a single driveway," City Engineer Troy Sonner said Friday during an
open house about the project.
Toward
the end of the project when pavement on Poe Road is milled and
replaced, traffic will be limited to one lane, with flaggers controlling
traffic.
The
$850,000 project will add left turn lanes on Haskins Road, resurface
the intersection, replace the traffic signal system, replace curb ramps,
sidewalks and curbs at the intersection and a add new sidewalk on the
west side of Haskins from Poe Road.
Click here to
download a detailed map of the proposed upgrade to the intersection.
Access
to properties will be maintained as it was during the recent project on
North Main Street. Motorists should expect to drive across stone or
steel plates to access those sites, Sonner said.
Once
the work on Haskins Road is complete, the intersection will reopen.
Because of the lead time needed to order signal poles and equipment,
those items will be installed after the intersection is reopened. Sonner
said there will be some traffic disruption but he does not expect that
work to create much of a disruption. The lights and poles will be
similar to those on North Main Street from Poe Road north.
During
the session, representatives from First Christian Church, at the
southwest corner of the intersection, indicated that the church will be
the temporary lunch and dinner site for the Wood County Senior Center
the week of April 21. The center will be undergoing renovations to its
flooring that week. Sonner said access to the church will be from Poe
Road.
The
official state-posted detour from the north will be Newton Road east to
Main Street and then south to Wooster Street (Ohio 64). The official
posted state detour from the south will be Wooster to Main to Newton.
Local motorists can come up with their own detour but Sonner warned against cut-throughs using private
drives and parking lots.
"We did increase enforcement on that problem with the North Main project and we can do it
again."
He said the BG Police and BG Fire divisions, along with Wood County Hospital have all been made aware of
the planned closure.
The
cost of the project is being covered by the city and federal highway
money. The federal money pays 80 percent of the construction costs. The
city pays 20 percent plus any right-of-way acquisition and design costs.
Sonner said the city will have about $250,000 in the project.
The city applied for project funding in 2008.
In 2015 a project will resurface West Poe Road from Grove Street to Mitchell Road.
Sonner estimated that 25 people attended the session, mostly business and property owners in the affected
area.