BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LIBERTY TOWNSHIP -- Two months after officials broke ground for the Butler Regional Highway, residents are feeling a new type of road rage.
This time it's aimed at highway officials instead of motorists, after contractors cut down two trees outside a designated area and failed to properly protect a Mill Creek tributary.
But the Butler CountyTransportation Improvement District (TID), the agency building the highway, said it fixed the mistakes at the tributary and apologized for the chopped trees.
Besides, an agency official argued, with more than 500 trees to contend with in a $92 million project, it did not constitute a major problem.
"This was three mistakes over 11 miles (of new highway) with 300 people on the job," TID spokeswoman Karen Lane DeRosa said. The area is west of Ohio 747 and north of Hamilton-Mason Road, near the Mill Creek headwaters.
A silt fence, which catches debris and dust before it lands in the creek, was not placed properly and was fixed late last month, Ms. DeRosa said.
Also, contractors removed shrubbery and plant life in a narrow tract of land in the same area beyond what they were supposed to clear for the new highway.
The reason boils down to miscommunication between M.E. Cos., the contract administrator, and Kokosing Construction Inc., the contractor in the field.
Changes in the contract were not passed on after the TID realigned highway plans to protect 2,100 feet of the Mill Creek.
"The Mill Creek has been paramount to us," Ms. DeRosa said. "To criticize our treatment of the Mill Creek is insulting." As for the trees, one had been struck by lightning and was dead, she added. It needed to be removed for safety reasons.
But some residents are worried these early mistakes are signs of worse to come.
"What's the purpose of telling us they are going to spend the money to do the new engineering when they let some joker bulldoze those areas when they're not supposed to?" said Paulette Hughes, a parks volunteer for Liberty Township and resident near the site. "If I can tell there are errors, what kind of quality person is checking to make sure errors aren't made?"
To stay on top of problems now that the highway construction has begun, township trustees Monday night agreed to compile and streamline complaints to the TID.
They asked residents to mail or fax messages with their names and signatures to the township administration office at 777-4726. So far, no violations have been reported to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Tom Harcarik, the agency's environmental specialist overseeing the project.
The road, which will stretch from the city of Hamilton to Interstate 75, is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Trustee Bob Shelley said he would not be surprised if, with a project of this size, more complaints don't pour into the office in the future.
"This was a highway that was, for lack of a better term, shoved down our throats," he said. "I don't think there is any way in the world this road is going to get built without problems."
