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OPINIONS
Editorial: On interstate coordination, construction and street lines
Construction on the Ashland bridge causes traffic congestion for morning commuters Wednesday, August 13, 2008, near Coal Grove, Ohio.
Purchase this photoSome road and bridge repairs in the Ironton and Ashland area have commuters and business owners upset, and rightly so.
One lane of the Ben Williamson Memorial Bridge leading from Ohio into Ashland closed last Saturday for bridge repairs. Meanwhile, both lanes of the Ironton-Russell Bridge about 4 miles away are closed from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. During all this, four-lane U.S. 52, is down to two lanes in the Coal Grove, Ohio, area as part of another construction project.
Bob Cleary, owner of BC Tool Rentals in Ironton, said he’s lost 30 to 40 percent of his business this week.
“It’s devastating,” he told The Herald-Dispatch reporter David E. Malloy. “We have a lot of customers from Boyd and Greenup counties. It’s been just three days, but downtown Ironton looks like a Sunday instead of a weekday.”
Is it really that hard for people in the Ohio Department of Transportation to pick up the phone and call people in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet so they can coordinate these things? Or is it that difficult for people in ODOT’s bridge division to talk with people in the highway division so they don’t shut down a bridge at the same time a four-lane highway is reduced to two lanes?
Apparently so. Governors Ted Strickland and Steve Beshear should let the heads of the transportation departments in their states know that they made a big mistake in not communicating and in not scheduling their various projects in ways to minimize traffic disruptions.
After years of discussion and planning, the Old Main Corridor project is moving to the construction phase. Monday night, the Huntington City Council awarded a contract for $997,197 to Hager Construction to begin work on a plaza that will narrow 4th Avenue in front of the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center to two lanes.
The council awarded another contract, which will not exceed $20,000, to Byron Clercx, chairman of Marshall University’s Department of Art and Design, for consulting services on aesthetic improvements within the corridor project area.
The Old Main Corridor project is an initiative begun by Mayor David Felinton. When finished, it will enhance the streetscape along 4th Avenue from downtown to Hal Greer Boulevard. The project includes landscaping, lighting, bicycle lanes and incentives for owners of small businesses.
This is one of many projects to build on the success of Pullman Square and enhance the downtown experience. It’s good to see actual construction work beginning.
Huntington’s streets are looking better now that many of them have new lines. Work crews were out this past week on 6th Avenue, 20th Street and other streets where lines had faded to the point of being almost impossible to see.
Keeping the lines painted is a simple preventative maintenance item that makes streets safer. Faded lines give visitors reason to doubt whether a city government works. In this case, the lines were long overdue. City officials must look down at times to see what is needed to stay ahead of infrastructure problems that have simple solutions.
