By Linda Dillman
Staff Writer
Motorists passing through the Groveport/Gender roads intersection will soon have a clearer view of traffic lights as the Phase IV round of road improvements winds down with removal of temporary signalization.
“Within two to three weeks, the temporary signals will be removed,” said Canal Winchester Construction Services Administrator Bill Sims. “The temporary signals were set to match the permanent signal placement, so there should be very little impact on motorists. When the temporary signals come down, the intersection will be more clean and clear with better signalization and lighting.”
According to Sims, the cost to improve traffic signals within the busy intersection with was approximately $250,000.
Originally, new signals were projected to be operational by the end of November 2018, but a problem with the mast arm and pole manufacturing delayed delivery for months.
“There used to be two companies making the poles, but one went out of business,” said Sims. “So that meant there was only one company for the whole country and it took more time to get them in.”
During a Feb. 19 Canal Winchester City Council work session, the contract administrator said the poles finally arrived in Canal Winchester on Feb. 15 and were in place by Feb. 19.
Sims said with the completion of this project – the first phase of improving the Gender Road corridor began in 2011 – only one unimproved intersection is left at Canal Street. There are no current plans at this time to start work on that intersection.
The $2.4 million Phase IV project—funded through Ohio Public Works Commission grants and loans—involved improvements from the Gender and Groveport roads intersection north to the railroad crossing. Work on Groveport Road extended several hundred feet west of Gender Road to several hundred feet east of the intersection.
Gender Road improvements also included lighting, reconstruction of the at-grade railroad crossing and construction of an additional southbound travel lane through the intersection.
A dedicated right turn lane to Gender for westbound Groveport Road traffic and a second left turn lane to Gender for eastbound Groveport Road were constructed.
Projects still tabled
A pair of tabled ordinances amending the city’s zoning code remained on the table, although one for the proposed Middletown Farms at the intersection of Hayes and Lithopolis roads was previously expected to be up for action.
An ordinance to rezone approximately 69 acres of land from exceptional use to limited manufacturing, owned by Gender/Thirty Three and located on the north side of Winchester Boulevard, was tabled at its third reading. The applicant requested the ordinance be held until March 18.
The Middletown Farms site ordinance, owned by the Dwight A. Imler Revocable Living Trust, was held after Finance Director Amanda Jackson received correspondence on Feb. 15 from attorney Thomas Hart stating, “Westport leadership will be traveling overseas for business until late February and requests that the case be held on the table until their return and until additional home plans can be prepared as requested by council.”
