Saturday, January 16, 1999
Road builder earning bonuses
Butler highway going fast
BY AMY HIGGINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FAIRFIELD — The contractor building the Butler Regional Highway will receive about $650,000 in incentive payments for completing three projects before the contract deadlines.
Work on Hamilton-Mason Road and Ohio 4 Bypass was completed before Nov. 15, 1998, and Ohio 747 was completed before May 15, 1999, making Columbus-based Kokosing Construction Co. Inc. eligible for the incentive bonus. Because Interstate 75 construction was completed on time, the company was not penalized.
Recent bad weather has slowed construction of the Butler Regional Highway itself, but Kokosing is still working at a pace under which it stands to receive almost $5 million in incentives.
“It has slowed us down,” said Monica Menke-Watts, spokeswoman for the Butler County Transportation Improvement District. “But it hasn't hurt us because we are so far ahead of schedule.”
The 11-mile, $93 million freeway connecting Hamilton and Interstate 75 is about 50 percent complete with 26 percent of the contract's schedule elapsed. The roadway is expected to be open by late fall 1999, months ahead of the original projected date.
To receive the additional incentives, Kokosing is required to complete the entire project — including landscaping and berm work — before late summer 2000. The roadway can be complete and open before such work is done.
The incentives are not included in the $93 million contract, but are funded through the TID's $158 million bond issue. State lease payments will pay down that debt.
The TID facilitates regional transportation projects by buying land and getting road projects built.
Despite bad weather, construction is continuing on several area projects:
• Cincinnati-Dayton Road in Liberty Township is closed between Hamilton-Mason Road and Bethany Road. Traffic is diverted to Yankee Road and to a temporary road just west of Cincinnati-Dayton. Crews are building the regional highway interchange at Cin cinnati-Dayton Road. The road is expected to open in early spring.
• Van Gordon Road in Liberty Township will close Monday, between Hamilton-Mason and Princeton roads for highway bridge construction. The road is scheduled to reopen in July.
• Hamilton-Mason Road also will close at Van Gordon on Monday for about a week.
• Morris Road in Fairfield Township will close Tuesday, probably for one day, also for bridge work.
• Liberty-Fairfield Road on the Liberty/Fairfield township line will close Feb. 1 for the placement of bridge beams for the highway. The road is tentatively scheduled to reopen after one or two days.
The Butler County Engineer's Office said other construction projects on Tuesday will close:
• Indian Creek Road in Reily Township, from just north of Springfield Road to just south of Imhoff Road for a bridge replacement over Indian Creek.
• Lesourdsville-West Chester Road in Liberty Township from about one mile north of Kyles Station Road to Hankins Road for a bridge replacement over Gregory Creek.
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