Ohio Department of Transportation spokeswoman Sharon Smigielski said construction on the U.S. 35 bypass related to the 200-feet-long bike tunnel will be complete by late November.
Additional work related to linking both sides of the 17-mile paved trail will be completed next spring, she said. The tunnel will open soon after.
“It’s great when we can complete these bike paths. I know a lot of people use them,” Smigielski said. “It is great for a community.”
There are two similar below-highway bike tunnels in the region — one on the Wright Brothers-Huffman Prairie Trail, the other on the Creekside Trail — but Smigielski said they are rare in Ohio.
Crews are currently working beneath U.S. 35 near the U.S. 68 exits.
Xenia City Engineer Christopher Berger said the tunnel will eliminate an access issue. Cyclists often use U.S. 68 and other roads to travel from one portion of the trail to the other.
“It takes away a lot of the danger,” he said.”Now it is going to be a straight shot.”
Bids for the project came in below the $2.1 million maximum the federal government would pay. The Cincinnati-based John R. Jurgensen Co. started the federally funded $1.42 million construction project in May.
An additional $303,000 for the tunnel’s engineering also came from the federal government, according Kjirsten Frank, a regional planner for Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission.
About $88,000 for that portion of the project was contributed by the city of Xenia, and $17,ooo came from a state program,” Frank said.
The area’s trail system will be strengthen by the project, she said.
“It means that we have another 17 miles of trail connected in to the almost 300 that is already connected (in the Miami Valley),” Frank said.
Constructed in sections from 1997 to 2010, the multi-use Jamestown Connector trail will stretch from Xenia Station to Washington Court House.
The connector in Greene County, a rail-to-trail conversion of an abandoned CSX rail line, includes 11 miles of between Xenia and Jamestown.
Once the tunnel is complete, its management will be turned over to Greene County Parks & Trails, which manages 65 miles of trail in the county using about $300,000 annually.
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