ABOUT THE PROJECT
WHAT: $8.5 million East High Street Gateway Project
WHERE: Between Ohio 4/Erie Boulevard and east of Sixth Street
DONE: Replaced or upgraded water and gas mains and sanitary sewer and storm sewer lines.
ON THE WAY: Current overhead cable, phone and electric lines will move underground. The project will also include streetscaping, lowering the pavement profile, rehabilitating East Avenue and Seventh Street, installing traffic medians, adding a right turn lane to eastbound High Street at Erie Highway/Ohio 4, and adding a second left turn lane to westbound High Street at Erie Highway/Ohio 4.
COMPLETED IN 2015: The intersection of East High Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard will be improved at an additional cost of $2.7 million, of which $2.5 million has already been awarded in an Ohio Department of Transportation traffic safety grant.
Source: City of Hamilton
The city is asking for input on an $8.5 million project that will improve traffic flow for tens of thousands of motorists along one of Hamilton’s main thoroughfares, improve safety, enhance the entrance into the city and promote economic development.
The East High Street Gateway project, which includes East High Street between Erie Highway and east of Sixth Street, is expected to cost about $8.5 million when it’s completed in 2014.
Hamilton recently signed a $285,000 consulting agreement with Jacobs Engineering of Cincinnati to start designing the streetscaping, the street medians and a commercial access drive to be constructed between Seventh Street and East Avenue, according to Richard Engle, the city’s director of public works/city engineer.
Construction drawings are being prepared and the project is expected to go out to bid in September or October, he said. Construction is expected to start before year’s end.
The city is looking for feedback on the gateway’s main streetscape project from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday in the Hamilton Municipal Building, 345 High St.
“We’re not quite at our 30 percent completion of the construction drawings … this is the opportune time to solicit input from the citizens and businesses along the project area,” Engle said.
The public meeting will include a brief presentation followed by an open forum for questions and comments. Exhibits will also be available.
City officials will then examine those comments and determine if any of them can be used to improve current plans, which include restricting left turn activity, Engle said.
“That (area) can be tedious for those trying to make left turns and, quite frankly, a little dangerous at times,” he said. “We’re anticipating that (the streetscape) will allow smoother travel through the corridor.”
Public input into the South Hamilton Crossing project last year saw residents and businesses offering comments on three alternatives for each side of the project.
“I don’t know if it was coincidentally or what, but it seemed like input from the public was the same as what our committee viewed as alternatives to select,” Engle said. “It was nice to get confirmation of what we were thinking was the same as what the public input provided us.”
About 200,000 vehicles each week pass through the East High Street, Engle said, making it an important entrance into the city.
The front door of every community is the first impression it creates for companies looking to do business in the community, according to Claude Davis, First Financial Bank’s president and CEO.
“For Hamilton, the East High Street Gateway is our front door,” Davis said. “I believe creating an attractiveness and a sense of vibrancy on the gateway will improve the likelihood of follow on investments by private companies throughout the community.”
“In order to continue our growth, the city’s infrastructure needs to be improved to meet the demands of increased traffic and business,” said Pete King, Vice President of Finance and Operations for Fort Hamilton Hospital. “The investment we make today will pay dividends for the city in the future.”
Image and functionality are very important for the gateways coming into any community, said Joshua Smith, Hamilton’s city manager.
“Doing a better job of routing traffic through enhanced turn lanes and smart placement of medians enables quicker travel times to Interstate 75, which several site selectors and property owners indicated is very important to sell downtown Hamilton.”
Improving the image of the East High Gateway is almost equally important, because it is the first impression of many who enter the city, Smith said.
“The development community wants to invest in areas that they see the community also investing in,” he said. “They know the East High Gateway is important because of the amount of planning work and the amount of capital investment planned for the area.”
Completed so far on the project is replacement of a 24-inch water main, which was determined by the city’s Department of Underground Utilities to have deficiencies, Engle said.
As a result of work on the water main, city crews also worked on replacement of storm and sanitary sewers on East Avenue. While working on the intersection of East Avenue and High Street, crews installed a portion of the electrical conduit across the intersection so it won’t need to be excavated again, Engle said.
“It made a lot of sense just to have the contractor doing the water main and the other utility stuff to do the electrical conduit at the depth needed,” he said.
A project assisting the gateway concept started Monday with a lane closure and shift for westbound High Street from Lockwood Avenue to Ohio 4. Scheduled to be completed by June 7, the lane closure is necessary for construction of an extension to the left turn lane and addition of a new left turn lane for southbound Ohio 4.
“We’ll be able to get more folks turning left and out of the through lane,” Engle said. “It does tend to get clogged because of the people trying to get into the left turn lane and the other people trying to go straight through and it gets a little confusing at times. We’re trying to alleviate that.”
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