ODOT Downsizes Split Project; S.R. 315 No Longer Being Studied
Published: August 27, 2009
Updated: August 27, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio—The Ohio Department of Transportation’s Transportation Review Advisory Council approved Thursday $17.5 million in additional funding for the Interstate 70/Interstate 71 split redesign. The money will be used to pay for detailed engineering plans to determine a final construction cost estimate.
The decision to proceed with final engineering work does not include work west of the Scioto River where state Route 315 meets I-70. That portion of the project has been pushed off to the future, without a
commitment from ODOT to fund construction.
In addition, the engineering work authorized Thursday places an emphasis on the area surrounding I-71, between Interstate 670 and I-70. But the plans do not emphasize the mile-long stretch of I-70 between the Scioto River and South Grant Avenue, including Front, High, Third and Fourth streets connecting Downtown Columbus and German Village.
ODOT representatives were careful in their wording not to say that portion of the project had been scrapped. But the emphasis on the other portions of the project indicate where the $512.7 million in funding will be prioritized if final cost estimates exceed earlier projections.
To date, ODOT has committed to spend $512.7 million on the project, including today’s decision to allocate an additional $17.5 million. The total cost of the I-70/I-71 split project, including the S.R. 315 interchange was thought to be in the neighborhood of $1.6 billion.
The stretch of roughly five miles of roadway bordering downtown Columbus averages more than two accidents a day, and approximately 800 accidents a year. ODOT says the roadway was built to handle 120,000 vehicles each day, but is handling as many as 175,000 vehicles a day.
Also on Thursday, TRAC agreed to spend $7 million on environmental planning work for the possibility of four high-speed rail routes in Ohio, capable of operating at speeds of 110 mph. The routes including the 3C Corridor, connecting Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland. Other routes that will be studied connect Toledo to Columbus, as well as Ohio’s portion of routes connecting Chicago to Cleveland, and Pittsburgh to Cleveland.
The high-speed rail service differs from ODOT’s plans to apply for $400 million in federal stimulus funding for the 3C Corridor. That rail service would operate at 79 mph and could be running as early as 2011, if ODOT receives federal funding. The money would be used to upgrade freight tracks and build train stations. ODOT plans to submit a federal funding application on October 2. ODOT notes that more than 60 percent of Ohioans live within 15 minutes of the planned 3C Corridor train route.
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Reader Reactions
The Ohio Department of (Existing) Transportation and its wholly owned rail subsidiary, The Ohio Rail Development Commission, get a free pass to say anything they want about their headstrong plans to spend hundreds of millions now, that will turn into billions later, on a slow-train to the past that will take upwards of seven hours to travel from Cincinnati to Cleveland and require all Ohioans to pay for a system that will never pay for itself. Meanwhile, any Doubting Thomas is relegated to posting comments on pages like this to inform the public that they are being oversold on its dubious benefits and unsold on its near- and long-term costs. So we learn that another $7 million is being used for more “studies,“ like ODOET hasn’t already doled out millions to consultants for more high-priced consulting. ODOET got another $200,000 last Monday to give to a California firm studying “capacity and capital costs” associated with the so-called 3C train corridor. That firm, we now learn, is outsouring this already outsourced work to $300/hour consultants. Until voters rise up and demand that the proposed $1.53 billion project be put to voters statewide to see if they are really on-board or not, the state’s “non-elected” officials at ODOET and ORDC will continue to push this slow, costly train down the wrong track. If you want to see a train of the future that is here today, that has turned conventional train technology inside out and upside down, check out Tubular Rail here: www.tubularrail.com. Then ask yourself why we’re pegging our future on train technology that is clearly less advanced than TR’s patented technology? If you want a fast, affordable, clean, energy efficient in your lifetime, the 3C isn’t it.
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