After half a century of anticipation, the Nelsonville bypass of U.S. Route 33 is finally set to open Tuesday.
By 3 p.m., Ohio Department of Transportation officials expect all 8.5 miles of the highway to be open to traffic for the first time, signaling an end to the largest road project in Southeast Ohio history.
The $200 million project was first proposed in the 1960s, said David Rose, an ODOT spokesman, who added that construction, funding and environmental concerns held the project up for decades.
“This project has a long history in and of itself since the 1960s when it was first proposed and decades later it’s finished,” Rose said.
He also added that the bypass’ speed limit would be set at 70 mph as opposed to the 55 mph speed limit elsewhere on the highway.
Construction has been underway since 2007. The bypass was funded partially by President Barack Obama’s $800 billion economic stimulus package, otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. State officials have said that without that federal money, ground wouldn’t have been broken on the final phase until 2015.
This spring, ODOT officials expected the bypass to be open in time for Ohio University’s move-in weekend, but 21 days of heavy rain in June and July delayed construction, Rose said in a previous Post article.
Now that construction has wrapped up, though, commutes to and from Athens on the state’s eighth busiest trucking route will be 20 to 30 minutes shorter, Rose said.
ODOT officials consider the bypass to be the final component to improving U.S. Route 33’s Ohio corridor, a highway stretching from Indiana to Virginia.
“It will make travel safer and faster,” Rose said.
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@SamuelHHoward
