BY LISA DONOVAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
By the time July is out, they'll be the men known for taking the express out of Cincinnati's expressway.
For now, Fred Craig and John Deatrick are simply known as lead planners of the Fort Washington Way overhaul.
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About Parsons Brinckerhoff
Parsons Brinckerhoff is an international engineering firm specializing in transportation.
Projects range from designing small bridges and roads to major airports. The firm sees $700 million in revenues annually, with 6,000 employees in 105 offices all over the world, said Fred Craig, vice president and area manager of Parsons Brinckerhoff Ohio Inc. Company projects have included:
Overseeing construction of a light-rail line from downtown Cleveland to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2.4 miles, $20 million cost. Planned, designed and built in a little more than two years. Opened in July 1997.
Replacing and widening the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge in Yorktown, Va. The firm oversaw the rehabilitation of the dual swing-span bridge, which opens horizontally to allow tall vessels to pass. The $73 million project was completed in 1996.
Developing a 15-mile, 17-station starter line for the Central Florida Light Rail System, at a cost of $48 million. Parsons Brinckerhoff is the civil engineering and design consultant for the project, which will ultimately connect various tourist and business points near Orlando, including Sea World, Universal Studios and the local convention center. Construction is set for 1999 and is to be done in 2001.
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Though core work on downtown's east-west connector won't begin until July, Mr. Craig, lead consultant, and Mr. Deatrick, a city engineer, have been orchestrating the job for two years.
While motorists do the stop-and-go shuffle getting around town, the lead planners and hundreds of others will realize a vision involving much more than improving the roadway.
The new, albeit narrower, $146.9 million Fort Washington Way will no longer serve as a sort of wall between the downtown business district and the riverfront.
The project involves moving and straightening the four- to six-lane roadway and eliminating central downtown and riverfront exits. Those exits will be pushed to the east and west ends of the new eight-lane expressway.
"The miracle of Fort Washington Way is more transportation capacity in less space, and that happens by pushing those exits to either ends of the expressway," Mr. Deatrick said.
The goal is to re-create the feeling of a city on the river by extending streets as bridges across the highway and landscaping new Second and Third streets as tree-lined boulevards.
"We looked at Fort Washington Way as a barrier to how the city could be extended to the riverfront," said Mr. Craig, vice president and area manager of Parsons Brinckerhoff Ohio Inc. "I really view this as changing the riverfront from our back yard to our front yard, and what you'll see out there is a new football stadium, the Underground Freedom Railroad Center and other attractions."
This imaginative contemplation is likely what made Mr. Craig and Parsons Brinckerhoff the lead engineering consultant.
Ranked the No. 1 transportation engineering enterprise in the world by trade publication Engineering News-Record, Parsons Brinckerhoff has annual revenues of $700 million. The company will receive about $9 million for the Fort Washington Way project. The firm, best known for building New York City's first subway -- reportedly on time and on budget -- has a way of insinuating itself in these situations.
In a book about the company, Benson Bobrick writes of engineer William Barclay Parsons Jr. telling a journalist how he got started. Mr. Parsons said he opened up shop in New York City and took on hefty projects so he would be positioned to build a subway there.
More than 100 years later and 625 miles southwest, Mr. Parsons' legacy lives on.
Parsons Brinckerhoff became involved unofficially in 1995 after it looked as if the city was moving ahead with a $40 million plan to repair the expressway. But Parsons didn't think repairing the roadway was enough.
The firm voluntarily provided sketches to the city, business community and the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments. The idea was a complete overhaul of the freeway, which carries an estimated 120,000 to 140,000 vehicles daily.
In 1996, Parsons won a contract to study revamping the expressway. "It doesn't meet current design standards -- there are weaves that are required that must be made in a distance that's too short, and people basically are never in the right lane to get where they want to go," Mr. Craig said. "It was never designed as an interstate highway."
Mr. Craig is a 44-year-old Duke University graduate with a degree in civil engineering. Much of his early career focused on overseeing real estate and industrial design projects in Cincinnati.
He landed at Parsons Brinckerhoff through a family connection. Mr. Craig became involved in riverfront development planning through Downtown Cincinnati Inc. as a member of the downtown advocacy group's transportation committee.
By 1997, Parsons was well-positioned to win the job as the city's lead design consultant and engineer on the project.
Meanwhile, the city had tapped one of its engineers to monitor the project. Enter John Deatrick.
Hefty transportation projects are nothing new to Mr. Deatrick, 53, a 24-year city engineer. He headed the Colerain Corridor Study, which has resulted in the widening and streetscaping of Colerain Avenue, Kipling Road and Belmont Avenue.
So after years of revising blueprints, thousands of planners and workers at the helm, and millions of dollars being shelled out, Mr. Deatrick and Mr. Craig are charged with overseeing one of Cincinnati's most expensive public works projects in decades. "This is one of the biggest projects the city has undertaken next to the convention center," Mr. Craig said.
Both men cringe at the idea of being singled out on this project and normally begin their sentences with "we." They tout teamwork. Their crew ultimately will involve close to 200 engineers and a construction force of 800 to 1,000.
That's how they're able to squeeze what would ordinarily be a seven- to eight-year project into about two years' time. Both men note that there is no cushion time but think their well-oiled machine has anticipated most of the "what could go wrongs."
"It's set to be done in August 2000, and it will be done," Mr. Craig said, noting that the date coincides with completion of the Bengals stadium. "I have a $100 bet with (Hamilton County Commissioner) John Dowlin to see who gets done first," Mr. Craig said.
Not everybody has been on board the transportation project. Restaurant owner Jim Tarbell has raised questions about its design as well as its price tag.
Reconstruction of the city's east-west connector started out at $120.5 million, but in March, city council signed off on a new $146.9 million budget that didn't include all the elements officials had included in the original estimate.
Mr. Tarbell said he is also concerned that work is being done without a decision about where a Reds baseball park will be built. He said revamping the expressway should coincide with the location of the new ballpark.
"It's strange that they would proceed with this project without knowing where the new baseball field will go -- seems like bad planning," said Mr. Tarbell, a proponent of what has become known as the Broadway Commons site.
He fears the new Fort Washington Way will make it more difficult to get downtown. "I see ramps being removed from Fort Washington Way, and I don't see effective alternatives being provided." Mr. Deatrick said streets around the downtown have created a "boulevard" route for quick and easy access to the business and entertainment districts. The so-called boulevard is a set of interconnected streets -- Eggleston Avenue, Central Parkway, Central Avenue and Pete Rose Way -- that surround downtown.
Through a Website -- http://www.fww2000.com -- each stage of the Fort Washington Way project is detailed so that motorists can plan accordingly. But in the end, Mr. Craig contends, this won't be just another highway. "We're changing how our cities utilize their transportation system and their land."
