The $10 million engineering project is designed to alleviate congestion and promote safety in a growing region of the state.
Hopkinsville, Ohio (July 15, 2020) — The Warren County (Ohio) Transportation Improvement District has contracted with Woolpert to widen a 1.5-mile stretch of State Route 48 (SR 48) at Montgomery Road/U.S. 22 in Hamilton Township. The $10 million project will expand SR 48 from three lanes to five, adding a through lane in each direction, a curb and gutter, and an enclosed drainage system. The project also includes widening Montgomery Road to provide added left turn lanes on southbound SR 48 and eastbound Montgomery (U.S. 22/SR 3).
Jon Wiley, Woolpert project manager and traffic engineer, said this project will alleviate traffic congestion and safety issues in the corridor and at an intersection that ranks among the highest crash locations in the region. The intersection sees 46,000 cars per day and supports Warren County, which is one of fastest-growing counties in the state. Woolpert will provide transportation design and engineering, utilize its mobile mapping system (MMS) to collect lidar data and supplement with traditional field survey.
“The MMS will drive up and down the corridor, mapping the road at the posted speed limit, and field survey will be conducted on the sides of the roads,” Wiley said. “This process is not only safer because it limits the time surveyors are in the roadway, but it provides advanced, precise data.”
Wiley lauded the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), Warren County and the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) for combining resources to advance this project. OKI is contributing more than $6 million in state and federal funding, ODOT is contributing more than $1 million in safety funding, and the Warren County Board of County Commissioners is contributing local funding and resources to prioritize safety in critical growth areas. Traffic safety engineering also is a priority for Woolpert, which recently was selected for ODOT’s Statewide Safety Design contract.
Warren County Engineer Neil F. Tunison said this project has been discussed for multiple years.
“ODOT did a safety study of this intersection about eight years ago, seeing the need even then, and the region has continued to develop,” Tunison said. “This is a challenging time financially for local and state governments, but we will always need to provide the infrastructure necessary to protect our people and our economy. This project does both, and we’re excited to see it move forward.”
Design and right-of-way easements for this project are underway, and road construction is expected to start in the spring of 2023.
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