The public can weigh in on Delaware’s East William Street improvement project today.
A public involvement meeting on the project will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. today in the Conger Elementary School gymnasium, 10 Channing St. The meeting will have an open house format, with drawings and maps on display and representatives from the city, the Ohio Department of Transportation and project consultant DLZ on hand to answer questions.
East William Street will be widened from Lake Street to The Point, a nearly $4 million project slated for construction in a few years.
“This project was originally the Veterans Parkway project,” said Delaware City Manager Tom Homan at a Feb. 22 City Council meeting. “It was the subject of a federal earmark that we received in 2003. By the time the project gets finished, it’s 15 years. This is for the most part a non-local-funded project, the first major improvement that we’ve made on the east side corridor in several years. It’s not the last improvement we’re going to make on that corridor.”
“The project is about a half-mile total,” Public Works Director/City Engineer Bill Ferrigno told council. “It was identified as a safety improvement project. It was justified based on the number of random sideswipe collision accidents you expect on a heavily-traveled corridor where you have no dedicated turn lanes.”
The Lake and William street intersection will be widened to make it easier for semi-trucks to turn under the Springfield Branch Bikepath Bridge, he said. The bridge span will go from 50 feet to 114 feet.
“That’s to allow that westbound to northbound truck movement the same as the southbound Lake Street to eastbound movement on the trucks to occur smoothly without the delays,” he said.
The road currently averages 30 feet wide, and the project will widen it to 38 feet, or 4 more feet on either side. The bridge will be a prefabricated metal structure, possibly painted in blue.
“It’s a good location for our new logo,” he said. “It will have a welcoming appeal.”
More than 200 trees will need to be replaced at the city’s cost (about $30,000), Ferrigno said. However, lighting will be added along the corridor to the ODOT building.
“Another fairly key feature is there will be changes at the Ann Street and Channing Street intersection, and eventually the Cheshire Street intersection,” he said. “Right now we have that split signal there at Ann and Channing. That will be consolidated into a single signal at Channing Street. The sidewalks will be consolidated. A future signal is planned for Cheshire — it’s very difficult to get out there in the peak a.m. Those two signals will work coordinated.”
Ferrigno said the plans should be done by the end of 2016, and right-of-way acquisition will start next year, either by the city or the state.
“That will take at least a year,” he said. “There are at least 60-odd land parcels to acquire to improve radii at intersections. We’re predicting construction will be in either 2018 or 2019.”
If you can’t attend, comments will be accepted until March 31 by emailing them to [email protected] or mailing them to: Bill Ferrigno or Matthew B. Weber, P.E., Public Works Department, 440 E. William St., Delaware OH 43015.
