BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
As winter circles Greater Cincinnati, work crews on the $50 million construction project on a 9-mile stretch of Interstate 71 are planning to halt work by Thanksgiving.
Chris Kunz, project manager with the John R. Jurgensen Co. in Sharonville, said unexpected delays prevented a planned November 1 shutdown.
''We are still ahead of schedule,'' Mr. Kunz said. ''We had planned to shut down for this season Nov. 1, but late rain in October prevented a lot of paving we needed to get done.''
Mr. Kunz said they plan to complete paving on ramps leading to Taft Road and McMillan Avenue within two weeks.
''About 95 percent of the paving has been done. We have to go back to the center of the freeway and put in light poles and some barrier walls,'' Mr. Kunz said.
He said work will resume in the spring and continue to mid-November on a 6-mile stretch running from about McGregor Avenue on the south to Ridge Road on the north.
Most of that work will include laying asphalt, tearing out median barriers and adding new ones, adding new curbs, walls, signs and guardrails.
''Right now we have 32-inch barriers in the center, but they have to be removed and replaced by 50-inch barriers to comply with the federal standard,'' Mr. Kunz said. As the barriers are torn out, a new drainage system must be installed.
He said that work will take most of the construction season next year, but if they finish by November 1997, they will complete the project eight months ahead of the June 1998 completion date.
''Good traffic management and good weather helped the project to get ahead of schedule,'' said John Heilman, technical services manager for the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Government.
The massive overhaul, which started in March, was the first time the freeway has been refurbished in 25 years. The refurbishing stretching from the Lytle Tunnel on the south to Kenwood Road on the north.
Published Nov. 14, 1996
