Fairborn to begin final work on major road project

Updates to Dayton-Yellow Springs Road are expected to be completed by the end of May.


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The final phase of work to one of the major roads in Fairborn is expected to start next week and be finished before June, wrapping up the multi-phase project that the city has invested more than $3 million to complete.

The third and final phase of the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road project has a price tag of $830,000, and upgrades to the 0.45-mile stretch of road are expected to be finished by May 29.

Fairborn received a $357,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission to help pay for the project, while the remaining dollars will come from the street levy fund, city engineer Don O’Connor said.

Phase three involves the section of Dayton-Yellow Springs Road between Beaver Valley Road and Southlawn Avenue.

“It’s the primary link from (Interstate) 675 to the Five Points intersection,” City Manager Deborah McDonnell said. “It’s the core of our city and it’s a prime redevelopment area for us. We want that traffic to have a smoother flow through there.”

According to Fairborn civil engineer Lee Harris, the average daily traffic count on that stretch of Dayton-Yellow Springs Road is 14,218 — the third busiest street in the city behind Colonel Glenn Highway and N. Fairfield Road.

Improvements include resurfacing, the addition of a westbound lane, new storm sewers, modifications to the signal at Dayton-Yellow Springs and Southlawn, and installation of a decorative curbed median island between the access road and Dayton-Yellow Springs.

During construction, there will be at least one through lane in each direction open at all times. The city hired R.B. Jergens to do the work.

“Even if traffic doesn’t increase, these are important improvements to make,” O’Connor said. “It’s a major arterial connector from the I-675 interchange into town.”

When City Council agreed in October 2013 to apply for the state public works grant, some residents along Dayton-Yellow Springs Road expressed concern about how the work could impact their properties.

City-owned green space separates Dayton-Yellow Springs Road from residential homes and a two-way access street. The green space will be removed and replaced with a three-foot-wide decorative concrete median, reducing the number of access points from five to four.

The two-way access road will still exist for the 23 homes in that stretch, O’Connor said. City officials said many of the improvements in the project are a result of public input from multiple meetings.

Resident James Sanders, who lives in the apartment complex near the Dayton-Yellow Springs/Southlawn intersection, said he notices how busy Dayton-Yellow Springs is, especially during rush hour.

“It’s just amazing to me how much traffic it really has here,” Sanders said. “It’s a headache just trying to get in and out sometime.”

Dayton-Yellow Springs Road phase one — from I-675 to Southlawn Drive — was completed in 2008. It cost a little more than $1.2 million and covered four-tenths of a mile.

Phase two was completed in June 2013. The $1.05 million project also covered about four-tenths of a mile from Beaver Valley Road to Ironwood Drive.

Staff writer Drew Simon contributed to this story.

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