Saturday, December 11, 1999
Traffic study expands
I-75 exam may include four states
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Plans to study transportation improvements in Greater Cincinnati's Interstate 75 corridor have grown to include Greater Dayton, and the scope of the study could reach north to Michigan and south to Knoxville, Tenn.
In February, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) plans to start studying how to best improve traffic, freight and people movement in the corridor. It's one of the heaviest transportation corridors, if not the heaviest, in North America.
“The interstate is causing Butler County to grow, and the businesses moving in have increased the truck traffic,” said Denny Krall, deputy of engineering services for Butler County.
Growing north
Dayton joined this summer, and now Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) Director Gordon Proctor says he's interested in exploring if Toledo and others along Ohio's and possibly Michigan's portion of I-75 would be interested.
“We're looking at the possibility of it,” said Brian Cunningham, ODOT spokesman. “It's too early to say yes it's going to happen or no, it's not.”
Before the end of the month, OKI plans to talk to Kentucky and Tennessee about being part of a study, too, according to OKI Director Jim Duane. “I don't know where all of this is going. But we have a lot of interest in continuing to expand,” he said.
Future needs
OKI's study in Greater Cincinnati is the third in a series of about a half-dozen on how to improve traffic in the region to meet the needs of the next two decades. In the past couple of years, the agency has completed studies in the Interstate 71 corridor and the area's eastern corridor, which includes Clermont County and part of Northern Kentucky near the Interstate 471 bridge.
OKI's I-75 corridor study caught the attention of the state of Ohio after the planning agency applied for a federal grant to pay for 80 percent of the study two weeks ago. It is eligible because it's an international trade route.
Traffic on the route has continued to increase. On any given day in Greater Cincinnati, trucks dominate traffic backups as commuters try to cross the Ohio River from Ohio to Kentucky. Freight trains jam the Queensgate area.
Seeing surges in traffic along Interstate 71, Ohio is already making improvements up and down that corridor, adding lanes or planning to add lanes on portions of the highway from Cincinnati's northern suburbs to Cleveland, Mr. Cunningham said.
And it could make sense to look at the I-75 corridor as one large transportation route.
ODOT plans to talk with the regional planning agency in Toledo, but there is no timetable on when decisions could be made to add other cities or regions to the study.
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