Delaware County looking at Old 3C upgrades

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

The Genoa Town­ship sec­tion of Old 3C High­way that runs from Free­man Road to Mt. Royal Avenue and Max­town Road from Ohio 3 to Tus­sic Street, are mod­ern pecu­liar­i­ties. The Old 3C road­way is lined along both sides with res­i­den­tial stock and also con­tains entrances to Fouse Ele­men­tary School and Genoa Mid­dle School. Dri­ving along Old 3C it’s easy to imag­ine the road­way as a town­ship road, but it’s not; Old 3C belongs to Delaware County.

One would think that Max­town Road from Ohio 3 to Tus­sic Street, a road­way that receives much more traf­fic and has no res­i­den­tial curb cuts, would be a county-maintained road­way – but it’s not. East of North­gate Plaza, Max­town Road (a.k.a. Town­ship High­way 32) is owned and main­tained by Genoa Township.

County funds can be used to upgrade the lesser-used Old 3C res­i­den­tial road­way; town­ship funds are needed to upgrade the heav­ily trav­eled Max­town Road pri­mary cor­ri­dor. Adding to the pecu­liar­ity, because Old 3C is a county road the speed limit is 45 miles per hour – much too fast for a res­i­den­tial street; and Max­town Road, with no res­i­den­tial curb cuts, drops to 35 mph.

It might be pecu­liar, but it’s also the rea­son that Old 3C is being con­sid­ered for an upgrade using Delaware County Engineer’s Office funds with a pos­si­ble con­tri­bu­tion from the Ohio Pub­lic Works Com­mis­sion and with no cost to the town­ship; and Max­town will con­tinue fun­nel­ing four lanes to two and expe­ri­enc­ing traf­fic back­ups as motorists turn left into sub­di­vi­sions, accord­ing to Deputy Engi­neer Rob Riley with the Delaware County Engineer’s Office.

Riley attended last Thursday’s Genoa Town­ship Board of Trustees meet­ing with three alter­na­tive options for upgrad­ing Old 3C slated for 2016 or 2017.

Alter­na­tive One includes minor improve­ments – much needed storm sewer upgrades along Old 3C, a minor resur­fac­ing of the road­way and minor drainage improvements.

Alter­na­tive Two, what Riley called an inter­me­di­ate upgrade, includes a widened road with curb and gut­ter drainage improve­ments and a traf­fic light at inter­sec­tions with Mount Royal Avenue and Hawks­beard Drive. Alter­na­tive Two does not include the addi­tion of much-needed side­walks or foot­paths to accom­mo­date pedes­tri­ans, espe­cially school children.

Alter­na­tive Three includes a widened road with curb and gut­ter drainage improve­ments, but includes a round-a-bout at the inter­sec­tions with Mount Royal Avenue and Hawks­beard Drive, a bike path on the east side and a side­walk on the west side of the road­way. Alter­na­tive Three also includes a cen­ter third lane (a.k.a. sui­cide lane) to improve safety for peo­ple mak­ing left turns into dri­ve­ways and to allow for increased traf­fic flow.

Riley said the Alter­na­tive Two traf­fic light solu­tion at Mount Royal would cost $150,000 to $200,000; the round­about is more expen­sive at $1 million.

“The traf­fic sig­nal at Mount Royal would be a mar­ginal improve­ment to the traf­fic flow, but we don’t know about the long-term life of the facil­ity,” Riley said. “Alter­nate Three with round­abouts would be more expen­sive but oper­ates bet­ter and be good for the next 20 years.”

Riley said sur­veys filled out by area res­i­dent dur­ing and after a Novem­ber 20 pub­lic meet­ing iden­ti­fied com­mon themes. He said res­i­dents are con­cerned about traf­fic con­ges­tion, espe­cially at Mount Royal and Old 3C, poor road­side drainage, lack of pedes­trian and bike facil­i­ties, and a 45 mph speed limit that’s exces­sive for a res­i­den­tial neighborhood.

“When it comes to speed lim­its for town­ship and county roads the only thing we can do is per­form a traf­fic safety study and for­ward the results of those stud­ies to the Ohio Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion,” Riley said. “We are con­duct­ing a speed limit study right now. No promises, but it will be for­warded to ODOT.”

Genoa Police Depart­ment Chief Robert Tay­lor said he likes the round­about solu­tion as a traf­fic con­trol device.

“The rush hour back­ups are espe­cially bad in the morn­ing,” Tay­lor said. “But I also think the speed (along Old 3C) needs to reduce to 35 miles an hour because of schools and the res­i­den­tial nature of the neighborhood.”

Genoa FD Fire Chief Gary Hon­ey­cutt said the Fire Depart­ment views round­abouts as an improve­ment to keep traf­fic mov­ing, while at the same time keep­ing inter­sec­tions safer.

The trustees agreed with Riley that Alter­na­tive Three would be an ideal Old 3C upgrade, and agreed with Chief Tay­lor that a lower speed limit would cre­ate a safer res­i­den­tial and pedes­trian environment.

While trustee Rick Carfagna like Alter­na­tive Three, he did ques­tion the need for a cen­ter sui­cide lane for left turns.

“I travel that road every day,” Carfagna said. “It’s slightly annoy­ing when some­body turns, but I don’t see a rea­son for a cen­ter turn lane.

“We thank the County Engineer’s Office and Amer­i­can Struc­ture­Point Inc. for host­ing the Novem­ber 20th pub­lic open house.” Carfagna added. “As the Engineer’s Office moves for­ward with this process, I urge them to con­sider the per­spec­tives and input of the res­i­dents along this road­way that will be most impacted by these poten­tial improvements.”

Carfagna urged the county to con­sider main­tain­ing two travel lanes, reduc­ing the speed limit and only con­struct­ing a trail on one side of the roadway.

Posted by Gary Henery on Dec 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.