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ODOT spins wheels on interchange woes
(by Joan Demirjian - October 01, 2008)
ODOT spins wheels on interchange woes
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
Despite Ohio Department of Transportation promises to provide relief for the Route 422 freeway interchange at Chillicothe Road (Route 306) in Bainbridge, frustration continues for motorists.
Bainbridge resident Karen Winkler said the traffic is so bad at times during the day that it sometimes backs up south on Chillicothe Road (Route 306) for a mile or more. On one recent morning, she said, she was headed north, and traffic was bumper to bumper back to the Eagle Creek nursery, south of Taylor May Road. She left from her house south at 7:08 a.m., and what should have taken five minutes to get to the freeway was a 20-minute trip, she said. The waits could be longer in the winter, she said.
Mrs. Winkler called ODOT after that recent experience. She said the timing of traffic lights at the interchange could be off.
Traffic is increasing as more people from Aurora and Twinsburg to the south use Route 422 from Bainbridge, she said.
And ODOT is not responding to people's concerns, Mrs. Winkler said. "We want some action. They need to sequence those lights."
Whenever there is a power outage, it takes several weeks to return the lights to the correct sequence, she said. She asked ODOT officials last week, "What are the viable near-future plans for northbound traffic on Route 306, turning west onto Route 422?"
Most likely, drivers will be stuck in the traffic at least for the near future. Some plans for improvements recently proposed by ODOT have been scrapped and deemed as unworkable at this time, according to the department.
Bainbridge Trustee Linda White said she is talking to Dale Schiavoni, transportation and programs administrator for ODOT's District 12 office. "We've had lots of complaints from residents," she said, but the township itself has no control.
Mr. Schiavoni said District 12's traffic engineer has responded to the most recent reports of traffic backups. The signals at the interchange are "optimized," he said, working as they should be.
Plans for redesigning the interchange have hit a snag, according to Mr. Schiavoni. Ideas put forth in the last few years have been discarded, because the proposals so far would put too much traffic on the freeway in too short a time and then cause new problems, he said. "If you feed too many vehicles on at one time, there will be problems in Bainbridge and at Solon." Funneling traffic too quickly onto the freeway could cause congestion not only at the Chillicothe Road interchange but further west, he said.
As of earlier this year, ODOT's District 12 had been working with a consultant hired by ODOT's Columbus office.
They had discussed a round-about configuration for the interchange in Bainbridge, but that was discarded as unworkable.
Later, a proposal was made for several improvements, including a Route 422 westbound exit ramp onto Bainbridge Road, east of Chillicothe Road. It also was scrapped.
The state is still planning turn lanes on Bainbridge Road, east of Chillicothe Road, and on Chagrin Road. When those lanes are in, the timing of the lights might be changed, Mr. Schiavoni said. Green time of the lights could be reduced on Bainbridge and Chagrin roads, he said. "We could increase green time on Route 306 to uncork 306."
Now, a contract with a consultant in Columbus has expired, and they will have to start over, according to Mr. Schiavoni.
"We're disappointed," he said of proposals so far for the interchange that have been deemed unfeasible.
However, ODOT engineers will look at left-turn slots now and at right-turn lanes, as with Chagrin Road, Mr. Schiavoni said. "It's what everyone seems to want."
The interchange in Bainbridge is just one of many in the state that need improvements, he said.
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