BY ANNA GUIDO
Enquirer Contributor
UNION TOWNSHIP -- Little by little, Ohio 747 is becoming a road for the future.
The highly traveled state route, which passes through Butler and Hamilton counties, started as a dirt cow path in the mid- to late 1800s.
Remnants of that agrarian past still can be seen along parts of the highway, particularly north of Interstate 275, where old farmsteads and historic cemeteries coexist with the housing and business boom in Union and Liberty townships.
By 2015, state transportation officials predict daily traffic on the road will jump from an estimated 16,000 to nearly 19,500. In just the past decade, Butler County's population grew more than 12 percent, from just over 291,000 in 1990 to more than 326,000 in 1997.
Anticipating this suburban growth and its strain on the two-lane highway, county and state highway officials began widening Ohio 747 in Butler County in the late 1980s.
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UTILITIES WORK DELAYS FINISH
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The $3 million in improvements unfolding on Ohio 747 in southern Butler County started in December and are to be finished in the spring.
Officials hoped to have work wrapped up this fall, but a delay in relocating utilities will hold up the northern section for one more construction season, Ohio Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kim Patton said.
"Utility relocation is a very common, and big delay in road work," Mrs. Patton said.
However, work on the section of road from Ashley Drive to the railroad crossing just north of Port Union Road should be completed in the fall as scheduled.
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Millions of local, state and federal dollars have been spent so far, but the highway's improvement is not complete.
The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is widening a section of the road in Union Township from Ashley Drive to just south of Smith Road. The widening includes the busy intersection of Port Union Road.
The project is to be done by spring.
Some merchants think the outcome will be beneficial.
"Business has actually been better," said Ryder Littlehale, manager of United Dairy Farmers on Port Union Road.
"We get all the construction workers in here for lunch, and the traffic delays are bringing in more customers. When the road work is done, I expect even more business."
Kathy Worley, owner of Studio K across the road on Ohio 747, said her business has not been good.
"I'm struggling," she said. "I've advertised. I've changed my hours. I've done everything but exotic dancing in the parking lot, but I just can't get any people to come in here."
She said her gift shop and dog grooming service was doing much better before the project began. "I guess it's just bad timing and a bad location, but maybe when the dust settles, things will be better," Mrs. Worley said.
The Port Union Road intersection upgrade is part of a master plan to improve Ohio 747 from the Butler County line at Crescentville Road in Union Township to Ohio 4 in Liberty Township.
Sections of the route already improved by the state and the Butler County engineer's office include from Crescentville Road north to Ashley Drive, and the intersections of Smith, Hamilton-Mason and Tylersville roads.
In 1999, the Butler County Transportation Improvement District plans to join the effort. "We're picking up where ODOT left off at Smith Road and taking it all the way to the (Butler Regional) highway south of Princeton Road," agency spokeswoman Karen Lane DeRosa said.
An Ohio 747 project of grander scale is expected to start in 2001 in Springdale, just south of the Butler County line. City officials hope to complete an underpass on the route to divert traffic under the CSX railroad crossing.
More than 60 trains a day use the railroad crossing, resulting in frequent traffic jams, particularly during rush hours.
That $10 million project is to be completed in 2003.
