Expected to be done sometime around the Thanksgiving holiday, road improvements to the Clough Pike Shayler Road intersection should give local motorists something to be thankful for indeed.
The project, a long-running concept for the county engineer that has seemed to take on urban legend status at times, has been under way all summer, but despite setbacks, will be finished this year.
“It will be done this year, we plan to complete it by the end of construction season this year,” said Clermont County Deputy Engineer Doug Royer. “There may be some cleanup work to do afterwards, but it will be operational by around Thanksgiving.”
The project represents approximately $1.6 million in total costs, much of that from state funding sources, and will improve the Clough/Shayler intersection as well as the nearby Clough Pike McMann Road intersection.
“We have the normal traffic congestion at that intersection,” said Royer. “It’s a four-way stop right now and has way too large a traffic volume to handle. This has been discussed since I started here back in the mid 1990s.”
Improvements to the intersection include replacing the stop signs with a traffic light and adding turn lanes to improve traffic flow. The intersection itself, located in a dip, will be raised about four feet to improve sight distance issues.
“There will now be a traffic signal at this intersection, as well as turn lanes,” said Royer. “Also, at Clough and McMann, there will be the same traffic signals and turn lanes. There will now be three lanes at the lights. The elevation of Clough and Shayler will also be raised to improve sight distance to bring it up to current standards.”
The project, which began in the spring, has faced some delays however due to utility relocation problems. Originally, the work was announced to be finished before students started back to school this fall.
“This is all one big project,” said Royer. “The whole thing began back in early summer, around June. We had some delays for utility companies. All summer they’ve been relocating their poles and lines, and that’s the primary delay, waiting on them to get finished.”
In terms of the overall scope of the project, Royer said that the actual construction work has only just begun. In fact, some of the utility infrastructure is still in the process of being moved.
“Most of the calls we get are asking why it’s taking so long,” said Royer. “It was supposed to be completed before school started. However, the utility relocation has taken this much time. Our contract has only just been able to start. Cincinnati Bell is still out there working, and we’re still waiting on some of their poles to be moved.”