DaytonDailyNews.com

Planners have had lines on a map for years showing a bikeway running across southern Montgomery County connecting the Great Miami River Recreational Trail in Miamisburg to the Little Miami Scenic Trail in Spring Valley.

Next year, with the start of more than $50 million in roadway construction projects including the Austin Pike Interchange, a critical part of that dream will become reality.

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That's because the new interchange, with Interstate 75 and two county construction projects east and west of it, will include a 10-foot wide bike/pedestrian trail separated from traffic by either a 10-foot landscaped buffer or, on the interchange bridge, a concrete barrier.

If the trail were not included in this critical piece of the puzzle, the connection would have been toast.

Officials from Montgomery County Engineer Joe Litvin's office, the Ohio Department of Transportation and other local governments will be unveiling on Thursday, March 6, plans for a one of the projects, the relocation of Austin Pike north and away from the Wright Brothers Airport runway. The open house will be from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the airport, 10600 Springboro Pike.

The $10 million relocation project is necessary because of changes in Federal Aviation Administration standards that require a 1,000-foot safety buffer between runways and nearby roads. Litvin said the FAA is on the hook for $4.5 million of that, but the county is still waiting for a long-overdue commitment from the feds.

The relocation will take Austin Pike north of the airport and drop the road down in a trench so all traffic and streetlights will be out of the flight envelope, said Rick Splawinski, project manager for the county. To handle the increased traffic from the freeway interchange, the road will be widened to four lanes, and the multi-use trail will be built on the north side of Austin Pike from Washington Church Road west to Springboro Pike.

Construction should begin in 2010, he said.

The state interchange project, to begin construction next year, will continue the separated bikeway up to the bridge over I-75, which will have a 14-foot bikeway separated from traffic by a concrete barrier, said Sherry Wampler-Ley, the state's project manager. The ramps to the interstate will have signals, she said. Cyclists and pedestrians will have crosswalks at two lights.

The county will then, probably in 2011, widen Miamisburg-Springboro Pike west of the interchange to a three-lane road with "extra-wide shoulders" to accommodate bicyclists, Splawinski said.

Matt Lindsay, manager of environmental planning at the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, said the agency has always shown a connection along Austin Pike between the two river trails.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2393 or

kmccall@DaytonDailyNews.com.