With the completion of the North Fairfield Road interchange project in Beavercreek, only three stoplights impede the flow of traffic along US 35 between Dayton and Chillicothe.
Unfortunately, all three occupy a four-mile stretch of highway between Beavercreek and Xenia.
Local planners have known this to be a deficiency for years, especially with the increase in through truck traffic heading to Columbus (via I-71) and West Virginia. The first problem to solve was in getting ODOT to agree with their assessment. Judging from the public planning meetings which have been held throughout 2004, this has finally occurred.
The first public meeting about US 35 in Greene County was held on March 18th, 2004, and is summarized in the original version of this document. This version deals with what was presented to the public on June 17th, 2004, where the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (in conjunction with ODOT) presented their recommended alternatives for upgrading 35. As usual, those wishing to play along at home should read through this handout. It includes other considerations I may not touch on in my commentary, such as impact to developable land or existing land use.
Alternative 1 (the tight diamond) from the March meeting is the winner. I still think the SPUI would have been a much better choice for this interchange, even though it was slightly more expensive. I predict MVRPC will be back in 20 years begging ODOT for money to convert it into a SPUI.
Also looking at the handout, Factory will definitely bridge over the bike path as well. I hadn't been sure about this point in March, but the plans clearly indicate a bridge at this point.
The only other thing which concerns me about the Recommended Alternative is that the plans seem to indicate the interchange will be built directly over the current at-grade intersection. If true, this is a bigger mistake than not choosing the SPUI. The interchange needs to be built just west of the current intersection to minimize traffic disruptions on both Factory and 35, similar to how the North Fairfield Road interchange was built.
Reviewing attendee comments from the March meeting, opinion seemed evenly split between the two alternatives. There seemed to be more interest in realigning the north end of Factory to the Dayton-Xenia Road/Beaver Valley Road intersection than about this project. The comments from the June meeting continue the drumbeat of interest in realigning Factory north of the proposed interchange, and just maybe ODOT should combine both projects if they can swing the funds.
A variation of Alternative 1 (the one I liked previously) was the preferred method of dealing with the Shakertown Road intersection. It varies from what was presented in March in that the new Shakertown Road/Factory Road intersection will have the Soccer Field access road flow into its east side instead of the continuation of Factory. This actually makes more sense from a traffic standpoint, because the Access Road is likely to see bursts of dense traffic at periodic intervals (in other words, soccer games) and will now end at an intersection which is likely to be signalled. Factory will now split from Alpha-Bellbrook Road just north of the intersection with Stauffer.
The majority opinion of attendees at the March meeting seemed to be that this alternative was the least-confusing of the three presented. I have to go with the majority on this point.
A couple of extra things that spring out of the plans:
Holy Cow, MVRPC and ODOT actually had the guts to recommend building Alternative 2 (new US 35 overpass over Orchard). I honestly thought they didn't have it in them because of what would happen to traffic on 35.
The only other thing I notice is that two of the businesses that use this intersection (Grub Steak II and Wickes Lumber) are listed as being out of business. This makes the economic dislocation I talked about last time less than I feared, but still a matter of concern for both convenience stores, the motel, the furniture place, the auto shop, Tractor Supply Company, and all three car dealerships.
Given the lack of frontage roads to the south of US 35, this project will have to be a delicately-choreographed operation. I can't see it happening without the use of Heller Drive to replace the traffic lanes which will be lost during construction. This means that cutting off access to Alpha Road must be the drop-dead last thing that happens as part of this project.
Of course, all these points assume that it will ever get built. During the March meeting, the Orchard Lane project provoked the most spirited reactions among attendees -- almost all of which was negative. The most complaints seemed to concern emergency vehicle access to the Soccer Fields, which might be an issue if you were dependent on your emergency responders coming all the way from Xenia instead of the fire station at DXR and Factory Road less than a mile away. Next most popular complaint concerned impact on existing businesses. One rather exictable individual apparently left the March meeting vowing to stop any project at Orchard Lane in court. The only thing that attendees and officials seemed to agree on was that there should be no direct access from US 35 into the Alpha Historical District.
The hits kept on coming during the June meeting. The owner of a local auto dealer sent a letter which expressed his concerns about the Orchard Lane proposal. In short:
Just as I'm ready to upload the new version of this page, MVRPC goes and does something new. In a further attempt to gain the approval of businesses at 35 and Orchard Lane, they came up with two proposals to extend Heller Drive west to Factory Road. I had previously thought this impossible, since a used car dealership was built in 2003 right in the middle of the land ODOT would need to extend Heller Drive to the west. They're either going to wedge it in between it and 35 or are going to tear it down. Either way, it's a very sensible plan that should have been considered to begin with.
Alternative A curves Heller north at the Little Beaver Creek bridge, then west to a terminus on Factory about midway between US 35 and Dayton-Xenia Road, and involves no changes to the recommended design for the Factory Road interchange. This would be the easiest option to build, as no businesses would be harmed in the building of the road. Traffic might be more of a problem, because the intersection of Factory and Heller would likely add an extra signal to this stretch of Factory. It might be less of a problem if Factory is realigned to the south end of Beaver Valley Road, because you could then share the Factory/Heller intersection with the old Factory Road RoW.
Alternative B addresses the traffic flow problems on Factory north of 35 by redesigning the interchange. Instead of the ramps for a tight diamond, a folded diamond would be built in the northwest quadrant of this intersection, terminating on Factory at the same spot Heller Drive terminates. Unfortunately, this design would completely cut off access to Nutter Park from Factory Road if it is built to miss the businesses north of the Bike Path.
Ges Prefers: Alternative A, with the realignment of Factory to Beaver Valley.
Alternative 2 (the modified diamond) is the recommendation for this project. Of the four projects presented in March, this one didn't seem to interest anyone. What comments there were seemed to be positive and supported Alternative 2.
An informed commenter emailed MVRPC after the June 2004 meeting and wondered why more effort wasn't made to extend Heller Drive east to Trebein Road. Currently, Heller kind of ends at the Phillips Sand and Gravel property about halfway between Orchard Lane and Trebein/Valley Road. The US 35 bridges over the Little Miami River will have to be widened anyway to accomodate merge and exit lanes for the new interchange, so why not add two lanes and separate them with a Jersey Barrier from the 35 RoW? You could then extend Heller over those two lanes to the old Trebein Road RoW (roughly in the vicinity of the cul-de-sac in the northwest quadrant of the Recommended Alternative). You now have yet more access to the local businesses inconvenienced by the Orchard Lane project.
Based on the options chosen, all four projects came in just above $65 million. Cost breakout by project can be summarized as follows:
| Project | Total Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Shakertown Road | $7,160,000 |
| Factory Road | $23,000,000 |
| Alpha Road Extension | $613,000 |
| Valley Road | $20,900,000 |
| Orchard Lane | $13,547,000 |
| Heller Drive | no estimate yet |
An article in the June 8th, 2005 edition of the Dayton Daily News concerning planned changes to a large upscale strip mall in Kettering mentions in the last paragraphs that the mall's owner also owns land at the intersection of US 35 and Factory Road. His stated intent is to eventually build a similar facility there. Beavercreek city officials contacted by the newspaper reported that they talked with him concerning his land (very probably in relation to the Factory Road and Shakertown Road proposals outlined above) but were "not sure where he stood."
I know where he stands. He stands in the way.
First off, let's look at the land that's going to be required to modify the road network at 35 and Factory. You're looking at new rights of way for Shakertown Road, Alpha-Bellbrook Road, an exit ramp from 35 eastbound, not to mention the amount of land that will be required by a bridge over 35. The Recommended Alternative for this project basically chews up half the available land in this parcel. What's left is much better suited for a large convenience store -- preferably one of the stores currently at 35 and Orchard.
Then there's the problem of retail development in Beavercreek, which is dominated by the Mall at Fairfield Commons and its outlying strip malls. Add to that the new mall being built at I-675 and Indian Ripple Road (which wasn't a good idea from the standpoint of project financing and the local road network, but I digress), and by 2006 all the air will be sucked out of future large-scale retail development in Beavercreek. There's also lots of already-built and vacant retail space elsewhere in Beavercreek at more accessible locations not due for major highway reconstruction within the next ten years (the small strip mall at the North Fairfield Road interchange springs immediately to mind). In short, an upscale strip mall is the worst possible thing you could build at 35 and Factory.
I'll say this for the MVRPC: they've got guts. Of the four projects they are submitting for TRAC funding for the 2007-2012 cycle, US 35 in Greene County is one of them, with construction funded for CY 2012. Projected pricetag is $74 million, of which they hope the TRAC would provide $66 million.
Full details are available here