By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HANOVER TWP. - An advisory committee Wednesday narrowed the list of long-range proposals for improving traffic conditions in northwest Butler County from seven to two.

Both of the proposals drew 13 votes each from the members of the advisory committee of the Northwest Butler Transportation Study at a meeting at Hanover Township Community Center. The committee has been studying ways to meet the anticipated traffic demands of northwest Butler County in 2030.

One proposal involves lane and shoulder widening at key intersections, realigning U.S. 27 and Ohio 129 in Millville and either widening U.S. 27 between Minton Road and Ohio 130, north of Millville, or building a separate access road. The cost of this option would be $57 million.

The second proposal would be twice as expensive as the first.

In addition to lane and shoulder widening at key intersections, the second option calls for realigning U.S. 27 and Ohio 129 and widening or realigning U.S. 27 to four lanes from Ohio 128 to Oxford. There also would be a realignment of the eastern segment of U.S. 27 around Oxford and an extension of the road's western segment to Ohio 732, south of Oxford.

The estimated cost of this alternative is $110 million.

The two proposals will be presented at a public open house meeting 4:30-6:30 p.m., July 15, at Talawanda Middle School, 4030 Oxford-Reily Road, Oxford.

The advisory committee will meet Aug. 6 to consider opinions expressed at the open house and vote on the two alternatives. The one with the most votes will be recommended to the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) for inclusion in the agency's regional long-range plan.

The action of the advisory committee is the first of 14 steps in OKI's process of evaluating improvement proposals for northwest Butler. "This is just the beginning of a long process," said Karen DeRosa, OKI's public involvement consultant for this study.

Even if an improvement plan sailed through OKI's evaluation process, it still would be years before the road improvements would actually be made, DeRosa said.

Once the plan is approved, construction would have to wait until environmental studies, design studies, engineering plans and right-of-way acquisition were completed.

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com