Subscribe nowCustomer Service

Register Now

• Sign In
• E-mail preferences

Journal-News.com

Liberty resident has beef with road widening

(Comment on this story below)

LIBERTY TWP. — Liberty Twp. resident Don Kristof is a civil engineer. As a project superintendent, he knows a thing or two about the construction business.

And he believes he's being robbed by a Butler County road project that's being built in the wrong place.

Kristof lives at 6494 Cincinnati-Dayton Road, between Princeton and Bethany roads, just south of Liberty Lane. That stretch of road is part of a extensive Butler County Engineer's Office summer road-widening project.

Kristof said contractors are building the road wider than planned in front of his home, and that blueprints the contractors are using do not match the ones given to him. Work began on July 5 and is scheduled for completion on Aug. 18.

He said he believes the engineer's office took three feet of his property on the east side of the road, and two feet from a neighbor's property on the west side of the road, hoping that nobody would catch the alteration.

"I may be wrong," he said. "I hope that I'm wrong, but my gut feeling is they couldn't make the road work with the original blueprints."

But Kristof is not looking at the most recent set of plans, said Chris Petrocy, a spokesman for the county engineer.

"What he is working from is a set of preliminary plans," he said. "Right of way is not final in those plans."

Petrocy said a county official met with Kristof Tuesday night and reviewed plans stamped "Working papers. Not for public use. 11-19-01."

"That's why they call these preliminary plans," Petrocy said. "Because they're not final and things change."

Kristof attended a 2001 hearing when the preliminary plans were reviewed. Petrocy said Kristof received a copy of all final construction plans later. Kristof and his wife also signed papers granting the county a temporary easement for construction of the road.

But Kristof said none of the information provided by the county indicates a change in the road's width.

In addition, the plans do not indicate right of way, Kristof said. He contends that S.K. Construction is following plans that are different than the ones the county provided to him.

"Anyone who knows how to read a set of blueprints can tell the changes are obvious," Kristof said.

He added that two previous surveys locating his property and his neighbors' property do not match the plans S.K. Construction is using.

Petrocy, however, said the road is being constructed where it's supposed to be.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5126 or eschwartzberg@coxohio.com.