BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Just when you thought it couldn't get any more inconvenient, it will.
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FWW AT GOCINCINNATI
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For traffic reports updated every three minutes, detour maps and more, visit GoCincinnati Traffic! |
At 9 a.m. Monday, the Walnut Street overpass that spans Fort Washington Way will close.
And on Aug. 21, all of Fort Washington Way will shut down for about 12 hours while crews tear down abandoned bus ramps into the Dixie Terminal building.
The overpass closure means motorists won't be able to use Walnut Street to get to Columbia Parkway. Instead, drivers will have to take the Race Street overpass to Levee Way and turn left.
The closure is certain to inconvenience some people who work at 312 Walnut, the 36-story office building at Walnut and Third streets, said property manager Kathleen Carroll.
Ms. Carroll said she will post the closure on elevators and leave information at the building's concierge desk today, as she does with every major Fort Washington Way announcement.
For Angela Ramos of Deer Park, who works in the building, the overpass closure won't make commuting any more painful than it already is.
She and her husband used to enter Interstate 71 northbound using the Walnut Street overpass. But the construction work has closed that entrance, so they're already taking a different route.
Her husband tells her that since the work began, "traffic is just horrendous" on downtown streets, she said, adding, "It didn't used to be like that."
The Main Street overpass will be the next to close, probably the morning of Aug. 24, said Don Gindling, the city of Cincinnati's construction manager for the project.
That closure is likely to have a greater impact on traffic, especially coming across the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.
But by that time, crews will have converted Levee Way to take traffic both ways. Motorists coming off the bridge can use Levee Way to get to Pete Rose Way, he said.
Once the $146.9 million reconstruction is finished in August 2000, new bridges will connect Main, Walnut, Vine, Race and Elm streets to a new Second Street, creating what planners say will be better access between downtown and the riverfront.
The city is building a temporary bridge in place of the abandoned bus ramps that used to feed TANK buses into Dixie Terminal.
That bridge will feed traffic directly from the suspension bridge to Third Street.
The city will open that temporary bridge before closing the overpasses at Vine and Race streets, Mr. Gindling said.
To demolish the old bus ramps over the southern half of Fort Washington Way, crews will have to close the highway between 11 p.m. Aug. 21 and about 11 a.m. Aug. 22.
