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Local Transportation Officials Keeping Low Key About Bypass Rank

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 15:01 CDT

Jul. 12--HAMILTON -- Though a regional council has ranked the Bypass Ohio 4 widening project as a top funding priority for the state, some local transportation officials are waiting before getting their hopes up.

The $32.7 million project would improve intersections and widen the often-congested bypass from two lanes to four lanes and to six lanes in the most heavily-traveled sections. The Butler County Transportation Improvement District is seeking $16 million in state funds for the project.

This morning, a committee of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments is slated to recommend to the Ohio Department of Transportation that the project be funded within the next six years. A final recommendation is expected to come from OKI in early August.

The widening project bested two other applicants, TID Executive Director John Fonner said.

"That score is on the strength of the debt-to-cost ratio of the project, the economic development potential of the project and a significant piece of the score is based on the 50-percent cost share the communities have provided to the project," Fonner said.

Local governments cooperating on the project have already pledged $10 million. Fairfield and Hamilton have committed $2.5 million each toward the project, while the county commission has set aside $3.5 million, including $1 million on behalf of Fairfield Township. The township also has pledged $1.5 million.

The TID is now seeking an additional $6 million in local funds for the project.

Jim Blount, chairman of the TID, said he is not ready to celebrate yet. This is the TID's second application for state funding.

"We got excited about this last year and we thought the project was going to do really well," Blount said.

Last year, OKI ranked the project second in regional priorities for state funding and the TID had high hopes. With a tight transportation budget and lingering questions over whether the six-lane section was necessary, ODOT's Transportation Review Advisory Council ultimately put the project in a secondary priority tier, making it ineligible for funding until 2011.

A re-evaluation from the state is expected late this year.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio

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Source: The Journal-News

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