CIC looks ahead at Columbus to Pittsburgh corridor

CADIZ — The Harrison County Community Improvement Corporation brought in special guest speakers from the Ohio Department of Transportation for its September meeting – ODOT Deputy Director of District 11 Thomas Corey along with Highway Management Administrator Ty Justice.

Corey shared the four pillars of ODOT’s leadership when making strategic decisions: Safe, Accessible, Well-Maintained, and Positioned For the Future Benefit of Ohio. He focused in on the first pillar in relation to Harrison County.

“I want to share a little about US 22,” Corey said.

“Safety concerns we see out there are not just about our state roads,” he said. “It’s also for local roads. We’e incentivized local governments to enforce traffic and safety ordinances, distracted driving laws, and participate in safety programs managed by our offices. One of those is the oil-and-gas shale program that I know some of your villages in Harrison have taken advantage of in the last couple years and that continues on.”

He said that ODOT works on many grants that can go into smaller communities that go toward things like pedestraian and cyclist safety.

“The other thing we’re working hard on is protecting our workers in the work zones. We’re working with state legislatures to permit video speed enforcement. We lose people every year. We’ve lost a tremendous amount of ODOT people over the years from getting hit in work zones. We want to help our workers and protect them,” Corey said.

ODOT invests about $159 million every year into local safety projects. These range from intersection improvement to straightening dangerous curves to adding better signage and signals. “We try to be proactive and use the data we collect to invest that money wisely,” he noted.

Something that has been spoken about in the county over the last several years is the section of US 22 outside of Cadiz where the road goes from four lanes wide down to two. This has been a hot topic and considered a particularly dangerous area where several deadly crashes have occurred. “I experienced some of those tragic accidents,” Corey said, explaining he drove the route regularly for over eight years. “I’ve been pushing for some attention to be drawn to that for years. … I’m fortunate to say that we’re going to present on Oct. 4 to the track committee for some funding out there.”

The section of US 22 will be part of the Columbus to Pittsburgh corridor that has been in talks for over a decade. The corrider is a multi-million dollar project and US 22 is part of the puzzle in putting the whole corridor together.

“We need $4 million to start designing this,” Corey said. “Historically, once ODOT gets a project into design, it’s going to be built. I think that’s very exciting for the region. You know, you get on 22 over in Pittsburgh and you’re on four lanes the whole way until you get to hear. And some people think they’re still on a four lane.”

He said in the most recent accident, someone had moved to the oncoming traffic lane and hit another vehicle head on, thinking they had the lane for passing.

“It’s just senseless,” Corey said. “We need to get that to be a four lane out there. I think it would really help with the economic development of Harrison County. When you start talking about businesses coming in, they want to know they have easy access wherever they want to go. That little three-mile section might be a game changer.”

Corey later on shared about the Bowerston bridge project and that he hoped the replacement would be completed before Christmas. He said a major problem has been working with a specific utility company who has, historically, not cooperated with ODOT.