City Engineer Lee Harris said work will stretch from Colonel Glenn Highway to Lindberg Drive, where parts of Kauffman Avenue are only one lane.
The city is currently moving utilities. Actual construction on the road will begin August 12. There will be a detour starting that date for southbound traffic on Kauffman to Colonel Glenn.
The city will fund about $1.6 million of the Kauffman projects. The Ohio Department of Transportation, the State of Ohio’s Surface Transportation Program and the Ohio Public Works Commission have given the city grants for the projects.
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If Fairborn residents like the roundabout, Harris said more could be in the city’s future.
Harris said the traffic signal at the intersection of Kauffman and Colonel Glenn is about 50 years old, and the intersection can be dangerous because of the angle it is built on. The city determined that building a roundabout at that intersection would be the best and safest solution to that problem. A roundabout will also save the city on maintenance and energy costs, Harris said.
Sunesis Construction Company is doing the work on Kauffman Road.
This project is expected to take almost a year, Harris said. Sunesis should finish up in May of 2020.
Other projects
The city will also start a Broad Street improvement project in October.
Harris had hoped to begin this project sooner, but he said the project could not start until after endangered Indiana bats left the area. The bats like to roost in trees, which will be cleared as an early part of the project after the bats leave in the fall.
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The Broad Street project will include widening the road from two lanes to three on each side and adding a 10 foot-wide bike path on one side. This project will span Broad Street from Sandhill to Spangler Roads. Harris said the city’s long-term goal is to do this to all of Broad Street in the hopes that the bike path and wider roads would bring more people downtown.
The Broad Street project will cost just under $1.8 million.
There will likely be a road closure on Broad Street north of Sandhill Road sometime in October, Harris said. He said the road should be closed between 30 and 60 days.
R.B. Jergens Contractors will do the road work.
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