BY LISA DONOVAN and LARA BECKER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FWW WATCH
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DETAILED GRAHPIC
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CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE
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Today:
 Eastbound ramps from Fort Washington Way to Vine Street/Roebling Suspension Bridge and Main Street will be closed permanently.
Eastbound Fort Washington Way will be reduced to two lanes between I-75 and Main Street ramp. By end of the week, the lane restriction will extend to Lytle Tunnel.
Access from eastbound Fort Washington Way to Pete Rose Way, I-71, Columbia Parkway (U.S. 50) and I-471 southbound will be maintained.
All vehicles wider than seven feet will be banned on eastbound Fort Washington Way only.
Tonight:
Left lane of I-71 southbound will be permanently closed just north of the Lytle Tunnel.
This weekend:
Eastbound Main, Race and Walnut street ramps onto Fort Washington Way closed permanently.
Week of July 20
The Fifth Street viaduct to Columbia Parkway is completed, allowing motorists from the east side several exits into downtown, including Sixth Street and Eggleston Avenue, and Pike Street, which leads to Fourth Street. This will also allow access to I-471 southbound.
The viaduct also opens the connection eastbound from Fifth Street to Columbia Parkway.
As of July 31
A new ramp from I-71 and I-471 to Eggleston Avenue completed.
Detours to allow westbound Fort Washington Way traffic to cross the I-71 median north of Lytle Tunnel and between Elm and Plum streets completed.
On or about Aug. 1
Current westbound Fort Washington Way -- also considered southbound I-71 -- lanes closed; traffic shifted using crossovers to current eastbound Fort Washington Way/northbound I-71 lanes; traffic operates with two lanes in each direction between crossovers. A wide-vehicle ban, meaning any vehicle 7 feet wide or larger, will be in effect.
Westbound Sycamore Street ramp onto the expressway and westbound Vine Street and Elm Street ramps from Fort Washington Way will be closed.
Westbound ramps from U.S. 50 -- Columbia Parkway -- to Fort Washington Way closed.
Connection from northbound I-471 to westbound Columbia Parkway and Fort Washington Way closed.
Eastbound ramp from Fort Washington Way to Pete Rose Way stays open.
Eastbound ramp from Walnut Street remains open for access to eastbound Columbia Parkway and I-471 southbound.
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Drivers making their way to downtown Cincinnati today will see the first tangible evidence of the coming two-year reconstruction of Fort Washington Way: roads blocked by orange barrels.
While the overhaul of the expressway isn't scheduled to begin in earnest until August, commuters will see their highway space gradually shrink during the next month.
"Until Aug. 1, we're doing nothing but installing the detour," Don Gindling, construction manager of the road project and a city engineer, said Monday.
Overnight, crews were to close eastbound expressway ramps to Vine Street - Roebling Suspension Bridge and Main Street.
Crews also were to close the right, or outside, lane of the expressway between I-75 and the Main street ramp. Later this week, the lane will be closed to the Lytle Tunnel. Meantime, the two inside lanes of traffic will be maintained.
The three-lane stretch of eastbound highway will be widened to four by using the shoulders. Those four lanes -- two in each direction -- will carry traffic on Fort Washington Way for the bulk of the construction period.
Tonight, crews also will close the left, or inside, lane of southbound I-71 just north of the Lytle Tunnel.
This weekend, ramps leading to eastbound Fort Washington Way from Race Street, Walnut Street and Main Street will close permanently. By next Monday, all ramps leading to and from eastbound Fort Washington Way will be closed.
Eventually, all ramps leading to and from westbound Fort Washington Way will be closed, too.
The city's $146.9 million overhaul of Fort Washington Way involves moving and straightening the four- to six-lane road and eliminating central downtown and riverfront exits.
Those exits will be pushed to the east and west ends of the new eight-lane expressway.
The new Fort Washington Way -- named after the riverfront fort that protected the city at its founding -- will continue to serve as a connector between I-71 and I-75. The expressway carries about 150,000 vehicles daily.
When it's done in 2000, officials say the new Fort Washington Way will be safer, according to federal guidelines that examine such things as congestion and the road's configuration. The stretch now has a "poor" rating and planners hope to raise it to "good," said John Deatrick, a city engineer overseeing the project.
In addition to improving the road, the new highway will eliminate what is perceived as a barrier between downtown and the riverfront. The goal is to re-create the feeling of a city on the river by extending streets as bridges across the highway and landscaping a new Second Street and Third Street as tree-lined boulevards.
Commuters are dreading the construction.
"I'll have to leave 20 minutes to half an hour earlier, which means I'll lose more sleep," said Derrick Jett, 27, a customer service specialist at Cincinnati Bell Long Distance.
Now, he said, it takes 40 minutes to get to work from his Fort Mitchell home. "It's kind of horrible, isn't it?" he said. "And I have to be cheery. Very cheery. I'm there to serve."
John Spanogians, 43, a vice president at Huntington Bank who commutes from West Chester, said he'll have to make some adjustments. "I need to come over a block, so I'm really going to have some competition for the right-hand lanes," he said. "There's a positive on the end of it. It appears that it will be a more effective way of moving around downtown."
Project planners are recommending alternate routes for commuters who normally use the exits closed overnight. Here are some options they recommend:
TRAFFIC INFO
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Find up-to-the-minute traffic information on Fort Washington Way work and other road conditions within the Interstate 275 beltway at GoCincinnati.
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Motorists traveling on southbound I-75 could get into downtown Cincinnati using exit ramps at Seventh Street, Fifth Street and Pete Rose Way.
For those heading northbound on I-75 from Kentucky, alternate routes into downtown include the new ramp to Fifth Street and the existing Pete Rose Way exit ramp.
Commuters still can get onto the Roebling Suspension Bridge from eastbound Fort Washington Way by using the Pete Rose Way exit. Motorists will travel west on Pete Rose Way and turn north onto the newly constructed Levee Way, which leads to the bridge.
If you'd rather ride than drive, Metro is offering some new services. The bus company started a Express Service from Fairfield (Route 62) on Monday. Metro plans to provide park-and-ride service from West Chester, Eastgate and, it hopes, Harrison. Call the MetroCenter for locations and times at 621-4455.
For those trying to get to The Crown, Cinergy Field, Sawyer Point and other riverfront venues from the north and east sides of town, traffic will be maintained for the next two weeks.
After that, a new Eggleston Avenue ramp on the east side of the expressway will facilitate traffic to the riverfront and downtown. Travel may be more difficult for some motorists because a ban on vehicles 7 feet or wider will be in effect today for eastbound lanes and, eventually, for the entire detour route on Fort Washington Way.
To get into downtown, such vehicles could use the Fifth Street exit from the south or Seventh Street from the north.
The reconstruction is to be complete in August 2000, in time for the opening of the Bengals new Paul Brown Stadium on the riverfront.
