C. J. McLin Jr. & Xenia Expressways

There is a flyover ramp from SWB northbound to 35 westbound, and a flyunder from 35 eastbound to SWB northbound. A collector/distributor system handles all ramps on/off inbound 35 except for from southbound SWB, and connects to the Keowee Street/Wayne Avenue interchange. This exit is so overdesigned for the streets it serves that it has to be the remaining artifact of a planned expressway across Dayton's east side.

US 35 narrows from six lanes to four at this point, and is a major bottleneck during evening rush hour. This has been identified as a major problem by local authorities for years, but it took the intervention of the Governor in 2003 to get this project to the point that ODOT's TRAC process now consistently rejects it for funding. We're looking at sometime past 2010 before it gets fixed.

Some research into the history of SWB has borne recent fruit, and can be found here.

Proximity of Linden Avenue just south of the interchange ties up traffic on Woodman. Due to the proximity of both the Smithville Road and Dayton/Xenia road interchanges, auxilliary lanes are desperately needed on either side of this interchange. Eastbound traffic comes nearly to a halt every evening rush hour because of the volume of traffic exiting off Woodman.

Any extra set of lanes between here and I-675 would require either a widening or complete rebuild of the bridge over Spinning Road. The spans are 11.5 feet above Spinning and bear the scars of numerous trucks that have tried to pass under them and failed. I think a widening plus a four-foot lowering of Spinning would solve both problems nicely. Make it capable of eight lanes while you're at it, because you'll need them by the time you get around to it.

Eastbound 35 to Linden/DXR, Linden/DXR to Westbound 35 only. This is due to the proximity of the 675 interchange.

There is a dire need of auxilliary lanes between the Woodman Drive interchange and this one in both directions, as a lot of local traffic uses 35 to bypass Linden Avenue.

The signal at this intersection flashes every second while red for US 35 traffic. This is an intersection that gets foggy easily, and there have been several bad wrecks here because people drive too fast for the visibility and get surprised by the color of the signal.

With the completion of the North Fairfield Road interchange, the traffic problem on 35 that used to exist there during evening rush hour has moved to this intersection and gotten worse. Towards 6 PM, expect both lanes to back up from here for at least 3/4 of a mile. By startling coincidence, a quarter-mile traffic jam happens on eastbound Dayton-Xenia Road at Factory about half a mile to the north as people try to avoid the jam on 35.

THe Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, in conjunction with ODOT, have recently chosen a plan to convert this intersection to a tight diamond, which given the history of rush hour traffic on this highway described above would probably shove the jam down to the next intersection to the east. Full commentary and links can be found here.

This would be the most difficult intersection to convert to an interchange, due to the proximity of both frontage roads and the surrounding businesses. The city's soccer fields are all south of US 35 at the end of Orchard, so ending Orchard at Heller Drive just north of the existing intersection is not an option. ODOT and the MVRPC have decided to rebuild 35 to pass over Orchard, and a summary of those plans can be found here.

The aerial image, since it dates from 1994, does not capture the realignment of the frontage road north of the intersection which was completed in the late 1990's.

Endpoint of US 35 freeway 1991-1998.

This road connects with US 42 at Wilberforce University two miles north of here, forming an unofficial (and unsigned) US 42 bypass of Xenia. The MVRPC commissioned a study in 2004 to see how best to upgrade Bickett to form a more official bypass.