Monroe City Manager Bill Brock said the three entities have discussed the future project, which all agree could happen in the next five years or so.
“The road is deteriorating and it needs to be addressed because of the increased traffic going to and from the mall,” he said.
Brock said the owners of Park North at Monroe where the new Serta and UGN facilities are located are planning to extend Gateway Boulevard across to tie into Butler Warren and Mason roads as well as build a bridge across Miller’s to get there.
Brock said in 2014, the city replaced a bridge on Butler Warren Road just north of Nickel Road with one that could accommodate five lanes if necessary as future development might require. He said the city’s section of the road between the new bridge and Nickel Road will be driven by development.
“We’ve talked about it,” he said. “We also have preliminary design drawings from 2010.”
Local developer Leonard Robinson said IDI Gazeley, the owner of the Park North at Monroe, along Gateway Boulevard in Monroe, is planning to start construction of a five-lane bridge over Miller’s Creek to extend Gateway Boulevard to Butler Warren Road. He said construction would begin sometime in April and be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2016.
“As development occurs, developers have to contribute right of way for road widening,” he said. “It’s coming but we’re not sure when it’s coming,” Robinson said.
Butler County Engineer Greg Wilkens said Butler Warren Road probably doesn’t need to be widened to five lanes and said it will probably be two to three lanes. Wilkens said the county could be applying for federal Surface Transportaton Program funding through the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Goverments in the next few years for possible construction between 2020 and 2023.
He said he’d like to obtain funding to widen Butler Warren further south to Kyles Station Road as a safety improvement.
“It would be a pretty decent sized project,” Wilkens said.
He said to widen Butler Warren Road between Bethany and Tylersville roads about $10 million about three years ago.
The widening of Butler Warren Road could also tie-in to a proposed I-75 interchange at Millikin Road in Liberty Twp. as well as a proposed long-range project to extend Cox Road north and eventually connect with Butler Warren Road somewhere south of Nickel Road. However that may not be the case as the owners of the Green Crest Golf Club, located off Bethany Road, are not interested in selling their property at this point in time, according to officials.
Kurt Weber, chief deputy Warren County engineer, said while it was a good information and idea sharing session, “nothing has been determined for the near future.”
Weber agrees that Butler Warren will be a two to three lane roadway and that it is on the radar of Warren County commissioners who have expressed concerns about the road. He estimated between 3,000 and 4,000 cars use the road daily and said there could be projects to improve ditches and shoulders.
“It’s in the very preliminary stages,” Weber said. “One thought is to determine where to start and that it may be an OPWC (Ohio Public Works Commission) project (for funding).”
He said other places where the widening could start are as far south as Bethany Road. Weber said both counties will be working on a pair of left turn lanes for two subdivisions between Princeton and Millikin roads.
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