If you drove through Nelsonville during your move back to Athens this past week, blame bad weather earlier this summer for your trip on the one-lane road through town.
If it weren’t for 21 days of heavy rain in June and July, state officials said the Nelsonville bypass would have been open in time for high volumes of traffic that inherently come with the start of Ohio University’s Fall Semester, when thousands of students make their way to Athens.
The final phase of the Nelsonville bypass was expected to be complete by the end of July, said David Rose, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation. It is now slated to open Oct. 1.
In early June, the department was ahead of schedule, but workers couldn’t lay the road’s foundation in pouring rain throughout July.
“We were rocking it out,” Rose said. “To build 8.5 miles of new highway is not everyday, which is why this project has taken decades. ... We literally put a new, four-lane highway through a national forest. It’s historical.”
The bypass will shorten drive times to Athens on U.S. Route 33 by an estimated 20 to 30 minutes, Rose said.
Construction has been underway since 2007, but the $200 million project has been on the department’s radar for more than a decade. The bypass was funded partially by President Barack Obama’s $800 million economic stimulus package, otherwise known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. State officials have said that without the federal money, ground wouldn’t have been broken on the final phase until 2015.
Although OU criminology major Tanner Lawrence is starting his freshman year, he said he’s already frustrated with driving through Nelsonville on the way to and from his hometown of Urbana, Ohio.
“I’m looking forward to (the bypass),” Lawrence said. “It will be awesome and save the public 20 minutes, and it will save time for my family coming down to visit me.”
As the bypass remained closed, another local construction project was able to open in time for heavy traffic while students were moving in.
The city of Athens refurbished the Oxbow Bridge on Richland Avenue and opened the bridge Aug. 20 after its closure in May.
Jessica Adine, project manager with the Athens Department of Engineering and Public Works, said contractors replaced the bridge’s concrete deck, patched abutments and piers and replaced sidewalks with pedestrian walkways protected by railings.
ODOT gave the bridge a sufficiency rating of 43.5 percent in 2009, meaning the bridge was structurally deficient, Adine said.
Contractors will continue some work through October, and Adine said travelers might occasionally find a traffic lane closed during that time frame.
sh335311@ohiou.edu
