I-75 Mill Creek Expressway project holding open house

A public open house revealing an Environmental Assessment Document for the $642.5 million I-75 Mill Creek Expressway project will be held on February 10 from 4 PM to 7 PM at the St. Bernard Municipal Building, 120 Washington Avenue.

Maps, drawings, tentative schedules and other project documents will be available for public inspection, and representatives from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and TranSystems Corporation will be on hand to answer questions.

The project, covering eight miles between the Western Hills Viaduct and Paddock Road, includes the addition of one lane in each direction and improvements to the interchanges at Hopple Street, I-74 and Colerain/Beekman, Mitchell Avenue, the Norwood Lateral, and Paddock Road.

The partial interchange at Towne Street will be eliminated due to low volume.

The TranSystems study shows that the preferred alternative would require the relocation of 22 residential and 15 commercial buildings and would impact seven parks, including Mt. Storm Park in Clifton.

Stefan Spinosa, project manager for ODOT, says that there have been a couple of changes to the preferred alternative since the last public meetings were held.

"There have been some changes to the Hopple Street interchange design due to recent meetings with the City of Cincinnati and the local community," he says.  "And we were able to completely finalize the environmental impacts, whereas at previous meetings we were only able to present the best information available at the time."

Copies of the documents are also available for review in the municipal buildings and public libraries of the impacted communities, and public comments will be accepted through February 26.

"Public comments have to be addressed before we get final signoff from the Federal Highway Administration," Spinosa says.

Right-of-way acquisition near the Monmouth Street overpass in Camp Washington is scheduled to begin in June, with the first construction contract to be awarded in January 2010.

Major construction for the entire project is scheduled to end in May 2020.

Writer: Kevin LeMaster
Source: Stefan Spinosa, project manager, Ohio Department of Transportation
Photography by Scott Beseler