Copyright 2002 The Columbus Dispatch Columbus
Dispatch (Ohio)
August 31, 2002 Saturday, Home Final
Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 02B
LENGTH: 606 words
HEADLINE:
OVERPASS PLANNED NEAR AIRPORT ; 2006 project would make Stelzer Road
stoplight bad memory
BYLINE: Brian Williams, THE
COLUMBUS DISPATCH
BODY: Frequent
fliers often face delayed flights and, in recent months, long waits at security
checkpoints. Passengers at Port Columbus get stuck with one more delay: Stelzer
Road.
John Brevoort said the traffic light at Stelzer
and International Gateway stops him coming and going.
"You wait a very long time and then have a very short window to get
through the intersection, whether you're going in or coming out," said Brevoort,
who travels frequently for Bank One.
"It's frustrating
when you're late for a flight, and frustrating when you're trying to get
home."
City traffic engineers say the light's timing
varies depending on traffic. Drivers on International Gateway see a red light
for up to 60 seconds as they travel west and 50 seconds as they travel east.
A bridge and interchange to take Stelzer Road over
International Gateway would eliminate the light and help people get to Port
Columbus more quickly. The estimated $39.2 million project is at the top of the
Ohio Department of Transportation's list for central Ohio.
But with scarce funds, the earliest it could be built is 2006. Airport
officials say that is cutting it too close. They would like to complete the
project as early as 2005.
"We would potentially have a
new terminal built and opened, then have to tear out and rebuild the Gateway if
we wait for the TRAC timeline," Bernard Meleski, the airport's director of
planning and development, told other officials recently.
As early as 2008, the airport could open the first eight gates of a
second terminal just east of the existing one along International Gateway, the
airport road. Airport officials would prefer to coordinate construction of the
terminal and the interchange, said David Whitaker, director of air service and
public affairs.
They expect to hire a company this fall
to do the engineering study for the interchange, then find funding to do the
construction, which would later be reimbursed by ODOT.
ODOT has talked to airport officials about a low-interest loan through
its state infrastructure bank, said spokeswoman Michelle May. She said officials
have not talked about ODOT repaying the airport if it seeks funding on its own.
"But that could happen."
Major new road projects in
Ohio are funded through the Transportation Review Advisory Council, or TRAC,
which was set up to rank funding priorities based on need.
The Stelzer Road interchange is ranked as the No. 1 project in need of
funding in central Ohio, May said.
"But all that hinges
on reauthorization of the federal transportation bill in 2003,"
she said. "Unless our federal funding increases, we won't have a major new
construction program in the future. All our money will be focused on maintaining
existing roads."
ODOT officials complain that Ohio gets
back just 88 cents from each federal gas-tax dollar it sends to Washington.
That, combined with proposed cuts in federal transportation spending for next
year, leaves a declining pool of money for future projects.
ODOT and other states are lobbying for a new five-year federal
transportation plan next year that would ease pressure on "donor states" that
feel they don't get their fair share of federal dollars back.
The Stelzer interchange would allow traffic to flow unimpeded between
the airport and I-670 and improve the flow of traffic on Stelzer.
Whitaker said airport officials want to coordinate that
project with their own plans to lower the International Gateway and move it
slightly to the north. That would accommodate construction of the new terminal
and allow new jet taxiways over International Gateway.
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