The city recently approved a $2.5 million contract with R.B. Jergens Contractors Inc. to make a variety of improvements to the intersection, which officials say has safety issues related to speeding and long crossing distances for pedestrians.
Joe Weinel, Dayton’s chief engineer, said the city is narrowing the intersection to slow traffic and make it easier for pedestrians to cross.
Philadelphia Drive at Salem Avenue has four lanes and five lanes of traffic. Salem at that intersection has five and seven lanes of traffic.
The seven lanes of traffic on Salem will be reduced to five, and the crosswalk distance will shrink from 120 feet to 80 feet, Weinel said.
The other part of Salem will retain five lanes, but the crosswalk will be shortened.
The southbound leg of Philadelphia Drive will go to three lanes from five, and the crosswalk will shrink from 95 to 69 feet. The northbound leg will shrink to three lanes (from four) and the crosswalk will be shortened from 105 to 68 feet.
The city wants to make that intersection less dangerous for pedestrians in part because the former Good Sam Hospital site is being redeveloped into what’s been called the Northwest Health and Wellness Campus at Premier Health YMCA.
Good Sam, a full-service hospital, was torn down years ago, but a new facility has been constructed on the property that is home to a YMCA branch, Premier Health medical services and other community organizations, like CareSource and Goodwill Easterseals Miami Valley.
On average, more than 15,200 automobiles drive along Salem Avenue every day. Philadelphia Drive handles about 14,600 vehicles each day.
There were 209 crashes at the intersection between 2015 and 2021 — or about 30 per year, Weinel said. Ten crashes led to serious injuries, and seven of those involved pedestrians.
Weinel said the full intersection was last upgraded in 1975.
Dayton also plans to make traffic calming improvements on a 1.4-mile stretch of Philadelphia Drive between West Riverview and Salem avenues. That project is slated for 2026.
Salem Avenue is being reconstructed in phases, and a 0.6-mile section of the roadway by the health and wellness campus will be redone, likely in 2028. But the Salem and Philadelphia intersection will not be part of that project since it is being remade now.
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