Ohio details overhaul for end of U.S. 23

DELAWARE, Ohio — State transportation officials on Monday laid out a proposal for overhauling the last stretch of U.S. 23 north of Columbus that they say will reduce the number of stoplights from 39 to seven by building new interchanges, overpasses, and restricted U-turn lanes.

But Gov. Mike DeWine stressed that this is not the state’s answer to finding a faster and safer way for the Toledo area to connect with the state capital. The proposed answer to that question will come later this year.

“We’re not taking anything else off the table,” he said at Columbus State Community College’s Delaware campus. “... The question of how long it takes to get from the Statehouse to downtown Toledo is intertwined deeply with what goes on in Route 23. ... These are things that we are comfortable doing that we know will save lives and will help anybody who drives on north 23 out of Columbus.”

And it would also be extremely expensive, with the very preliminary ballpark at between $1.4 and $1.9 billion and would take years to complete. So far the state has committed just $17 million for initial design work for a segment north of the city of Delaware.

The $13.5 billion, two-year transportation budget enacted last year held $10 million for a Strategic Transportation and Development Analysis of demographic and congestion trends over the next 10, 20, and 30 years. The idea is to predict future needs to keep traffic flowing.

As part of that study, the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission are looking at potential corridors better connecting Columbus with both Toledo and Sandusky.

Improvements to the 23-mile stretch of heavily congested, stoplight-ridden Route 23 corridor between the I-270 Columbus Beltway in Worthington and Waldo, about 100 miles south of Toledo, could be just one step in that direction.

Public hearings on the recommendations for this stretch will be held in early August.

The Route 23 corridor carries some 30 percent more traffic than it was designed for. Southbound highway traffic from I-75 and State Rt. 15 bottlenecks further south, particularly in the heavily developed cities of Delaware and Lewis Center before reaching I-270.

“Northwest Ohio has spoken with one voice on the need for an efficient connection to Columbus for people and freight,” Sandy Spang, TMACOG’s executive director, said in a statement. “With improvements to the existing Route 23, Governor DeWine is taking a positive first step toward a comprehensive plan that will support Ohio’s future economic vitality.”

Currently, it can take 40 minutes to travel the 39-signal span. The Ohio Department of Transportation has projected that could extend to 75 minutes by 2050 if no changes are made. With the changes, the commute is projected to be about 30 minutes.

The Columbus region’s current development boom, with massive investments by the likes of Intel and Honda, has spotlighted the lack of a direct freeway linking that region to potential suppliers and commuters in northwest Ohio and farther north in Michigan and Canada. Mr. DeWine noted that this differs from the freeways that generally connect Ohio’s other major cities with Columbus.

“It’s not just a Delaware problem,” ODOT Director Jack Marchbanks said. “It’s a central Ohio problem, and that makes it a statewide problem.”

Prior to launching this study, ODOT ruled out construction of a bypass connecting Route 23 with I-71 or U.S. 33 in Delaware County.

Those concepts faced major local opposition and were deemed infeasible because of their price tags, complexity, environmental impact, and right-of-way issues. So the focus shifted to more incremental improvements like those unveiled Wednesday.

But Mr. DeWine said a freeway remains an option on the table. The plans could still change as the public weighs in through hearings at various points along this stretch as well as online.

State Sen. Bill Reineke (R., Tiffin), whose district includes the northernmost portion of the U.S. 23 corridor, said it was important to put a deadline of this year on the study’s completion so that lawmakers would know what was needed heading into next year’s transportation budget negotiations. He said local input will be critical.

“I understand the original dialogue with the freeway, but that impaired a lot of farmland, etc., so what is encouraging to me on this is how, using the current roads, we can get rid of traffic lights to make it more meaningful time-wise and efficient,” Senator Reineke said.

Mr. DeWine noted that it will be up to future governors and legislatures to ultimately fund any such improvements, adding that inflation over time will diminish the value of Ohio’s fuel-tax dollars.

But he stressed that he wasn’t using the project as a pitch for a second gas tax increase on his watch.

Meanwhile, the Ohio Rail Development Commission is using federal infrastructure dollars to study possible expansion of conventional or high-speed passenger rail services in the state. It is required to look beyond simply connecting Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati and the points in between, routes that had previously been the subject of most Ohio rail discussion.

“The biggest impediment to establishing rail is people’s reluctance to get out of their car,” Mr. DeWine said. “For them to get out of their car, it has to be convenient, it has to be fast, it has to work for them.”

Contact Jim Provance at:

jprovance@theblade.com.