Speed up I-80 plans, some urge

The $204M project to add a third lane may begin much sooner than expected.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

The Ohio Department of Transportation wants to bump up on the priority list plans for a third lane on Interstate 80 between I-680 and state Route 193.

The reason? The area’s already high interstate traffic — especially truck traffic — is expected to increase in the next 15 years.

The plans are not new, but started moving forward at a recent meeting before the Transportation Review Advisory Council. TRAC is the panel that chooses major new transportation projects.

The project is listed as a tier 2 project, and ODOT wants it moved to tier 1. Tier 1 projects are ready for construction.

Patrick Ungaro, Liberty Township administrator, and also a member of TRAC, believes that effort will succeed.

“I believe the I-80 project by the end of the year will be a tier 1 project,” Ungaro said. “I feel pretty confident in saying that.”

ODOT District 4, which includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties, presented the proposal for the estimated $204 million project.

“Projected traffic is expected to result in poor levels of service by 2025,” ODOT’s application said. “This roadway section currently carries an extremely high volume of interstate traffic, much of which originates from the Ohio Turnpike.”

The application cautions: “The roadway is nearing the end of its useful life.”

The need for a project is evaluated using an analysis of traffic counts and safety issues, Ungaro said.

He pointed to safety concerns where I-80 and state Route 11 meet.

The project had originally included a second phase, adding a third lane from Liberty to Hubbard. Ungaro believes that portion also is needed. It, however, was placed on a back burner in 2007.

Ungaro said TRAC had placed too many projects in tier 1, and then the economy turned. Bids were coming in higher than anticipated, and costs for material such as asphalt increased.

Now though, construction companies are looking for work because of the recession and are bidding competitively, Ungaro said.

He expects TRAC to make decisions about moving projects ahead at a meeting Dec. 10.

Justin Chesnic, an ODOT District 4 spokesman, said the panel is hearing presentations from throughout the state and will determine its priority list based on a new rating scale.

The new scale by which all projects are scored includes economic impact. TRAC will judge projects on transportation factors, economic growth and development and local/private investment commitment.

Among the new scoring criteria are:

U A benefit/cost ratio to measure the public benefit of the project instead of only the transportation problem.

U A category to gauge a project’s air-quality impact.

U A category to score whether projects connect modes of transportation.

Another factor will be how future projects position land for redevelopment, reclaim brownfields and improve access to job centers.

ODOT’s application states that the proximity of Route 46, Interstate 680 and Route 11 interchanges results in “complex weave movements because of local traffic patterns.”

Truck traffic is expected to grow at a faster rate than other traffic, the application said.

Michael B. Dockry, Austintown Township administrator, believes the project would be a benefit.

“I’m sure it would definitely be helpful,” he said.

A third lane would help fire department crews respond to traffic accidents, Dockry said.

Austintown Fire Chief Andy Frost Jr. agreed.

“Right there where the traffic weaves — that’s terrible,” he said. He said he’s surprised there aren’t more accidents there.

When ODOT presented its I-80 proposal, one of the TRAC members questioned whether they had examined the possibility or feasibility of making it a toll road, said Kathleen Rodi, transportation director at Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. Rodi attended the TRAC meeting last month.

A 2004 study by URS Consultants of Akron that was prepared for ODOT District 4 and Eastgate looked at tolling, Rodi said.

“It ranked very low,” she said.

In Pennsylvania, the turnpike commission has been pursuing making I-80 a toll road, thus far unsuccessfully.

Rodi said Eastgate is watching that across-the-border effort.

The study said the “nature of travel and traffic in the corridor suggest high-occupancy vehicle facilities would have little impact and be costly.

“Cost would increase for toll collection facilities,” it said. “However, a traditional [high occupancy toll] lane is unlikely to generate much additional traffic given the level of congestion and the nature of travel” in the area. “Thus toll revenue would be low.”

Toll facilities are not well-accepted in Ohio for local travel, the study continues.

Though it examined multiple alternatives, it identified adding the center lanes as the preferred improvement.

“The need for improvements is due to traffic congestion on the two through lanes resulting from high truck volumes,” the study found.

denise_dick@vindy.com