TRAFFIC COVERAGE
On TV: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates to help you with your commute every 10 minutes in the morning Monday-Friday from 5-7 a.m. on WHIO-TV Channel 7.
Online: Watch traffic cameras and find out where the cheap gas is on our new online traffic page at WHIO.com
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On the radio: Sgt. Mark Bowron has traffic updates throughout the day at News 95.7 FM and AM 1290. Also, listen at 7:15 a.m. Mondays for a look ahead at the week in construction areas to watch from our transportation reporter Steve Bennish.
Major road projects affecting tens of thousands of drivers daily on South Main Street, Smithville Road and Warren Street are on or ahead of schedule, officials say.
There’s $15 million in road construction projects currently underway in Dayton.
The third and final phase of the $5 million reconstruction of Smithville Road from Cleveland to Wayne avenues in Dayton’s Belmont neighborhood is months ahead of schedule and should be completed in late September or early October, rather than December.
Dayton Public Works Assistant Director Steve Finke credits good spring weather. He said other projects are on schedule, including the rebuilding of South Main Street — near Miami Valley Hospital — that for years was a washboard route on numerous patched potholes.
At full use, the downtown artery carries 20,870 drivers a day. .
The street will be widened from four lanes to five lanes - two lanes southbound and two lanes northbound and a center left-turn lane. There will be new sidewalks and lighting, too.
Contractors last week rerouted single-lane construction zone traffic from one side of the roadway to the other to begin rebuilding the other half.
The $7.1 million project — the most prominent surface street project in the city — began last year and should be completed in late September.
Once traffic gets rolling, contractors will begin rebuilding Warren Street, just south of U.S. 35, so travel into downtown isn’t squeezed too badly.
The $3.7 million Warren project will result in one lane in each direction, a dedicated left-turn lane and bike lanes on either side. The street now has four narrow lanes. It should also begin with the groundbreaking of a commercial/residential project known as The Flats at South Park.
Brown Street underwent the same style of rebuild a few years ago. The project will extend the bikeways and road design by the University of Dayton deeper into downtown.
About that time also, the city will ask for bids on demolishing and rebuilding the Webster Street Bridge. Demolition should start in late October and work will continue all winter.
A completion date is not certain, but it will likely be the end of 2016 or early 2017.
Starting in July, workers will begin building a bikeway ramp to create pedestrian and bike access to the Wolf Creek Bikeway from Broadway Street.
Contractors will also start working on a plaza on the southwest corner of the Salem Avenue Bridge to honor Richard Holbrooke, author of the Dayton Peace Accords.
“Things are moving along, and weather has been cooperative. If it stays that way, it should be a good season,” Finke said.
I-75 project also ahead of schedule
Meanwhile, the biggest project of them all, the Interstate 75 rebuild, is ahead of schedule. Kokosing Construction Company Inc., the main contractor, is ahead on the job that has an official finish date of July 2017. And if progress continues at its current fast pace, the rebuild could conclude up to a year early - in 2016, ODOT said.
“We’re optimistic they are moving well,” Randy Chevalley, Deputy Director of ODOT District 7, said. ” They are doing lots of work on the local street system. I think that the potential of a year ahead of time is in the works. If they get bridge and local pavement behind them, this whole thing could have a jump next year.”
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