Colerain improvement project open house tomorrow night

The public is invited to see the latest plans for alleviating the frequent bottlenecks around the Colerain-Virginia-West Fork intersection in Northside.

An open house will be held tomorrow evening at the McKie Recreation Center, 1615 Chase Avenue, from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM.

Residents will be able to view the preliminary designs, exhibits detailing the project’s history, and the project timeline.

Representatives from the City of Cincinnati’s Department of Transportation and Engineering (DOTE) and the engineering consultant, M•E Companies, Inc., will be on hand to answer questions.

The preferred alternative, Alternative 2, would widen Colerain Avenue along the east side of the street, providing wider lanes and a southbound left-turn lane onto Virginia Avenue.

“This project is necessary because it will improve the level of service of traffic flow along Colerain Avenue,” says John Brazina, project engineer for DOTE.

Leeper Street will be realigned with an opposite private drive, and an off-street parking lot will be built to replace Colerain’s on-street parking.

“Accident data has shown that traffic crashes are caused by the narrow lanes and parked cars along Colerain Avenue,” Brazina says.

Following the open house, work will begin on the completion of the Environmental Document, the final design, and right-of-way acquisition.

A final public meeting is scheduled for this fall, and project completion is expected in 2013.

“These improvements compliment the improvements to those of Phase 1, the Colerain Avenue Intersection Improvement Project,” Brazina says.

Phase 1, which is expected to break ground in 2009, will realign Virginia Avenue with West Fork Road, adding a double left-turn lane to Virginia and a free-flow right-turn lane to northbound Colerain Avenue.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: John Brazina, project engineer, DOTE