Road work to pave way for business in airport area

A planned remaking of National Road and the Airport Access Road near the Dayton International Airport is meant to ease access not only for travelers, but for the growing business presence in the area, said Steve Stanley, executive director of the Montgomery County Transportation Improvement District, which will guide much of the project.

The idea is to cut congestion and ease access to Procter & Gamble’s and Spectrum Brands’ distribution centers, Stonequarry Industrial Park and elsewhere.

“We want to make sure the basic infrastructure is in place to anticipate future needs,” Stanley said Tuesday. “It’s going to service the whole area.”

The Transportation Improvement District struck a cooperative agreement with local governments around the airport and Montgomery County to look at development of the area five years ago. Even then, the need for road improvements was evident, Stanley said.

“The location obviously sells itself,” he said.

The desire is to bring the interchange of U.S. 40 and the Airport Access Road off Interstate 70 up to a “modern standard,” he said. Any interchange built there today would “look somewhat different,” he said.

But the principal planned changes will be on National Road/U.S. 40 itself, expanding its capacity to the west from the interchange, Stanley said.

The project will add a “continuous five-lane section of road with two through lanes in each direction and a center left turn lane,” the district said in a new facts sheet “The five-lane section will extend from the Terminal Drive interchange west to Union Airpark Boulevard. From Airpark Boulevard , the roadway will be tapered back to two lanes to the west.”

Stanley expects the region to go through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Transportation Review Advisory Council process to apply for funds for the project.

An estimated $12.6 million price tag is “extremely preliminary, and that would include everything,” Stanley said. He thinks that initial estimate is high.

Without these planned improvements? With additional business development, over time, traffic on National Road will increase and so will congestion, he said.

“Without this improvement, then you just have less capacity,” he said.

A public information meeting on the plans is set for 4:30 to 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Dayton International Airport terminal. Free parking will be provided in the garage, and the meeting will be held in an “open house” format, the district said.

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