Friday, October 22, 1999
Coming soon: New Fort Washington Way
Two-way traffic returns Monday
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Workers rush to open four lanes of Fort Washington Way by Monday.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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At 9 tonight Fort Washington Way and two downtown exit ramps will close so construction crews can make the final connections to open half of the new downtown Cincinnati expressway Monday.
Crews will have less than 60 hours to stripe the road, put up signs and move barriers to make the connections that will allow traffic from Interstates 71 and 75 to feed onto the new Fort Washington Way.
By 5 a.m. Monday, just before morning rush hour, four new lanes of the eventual eight-lane highway are scheduled to open to eastbound and westbound traffic.
It will be the first time the 25,000 daily westbound commuters have been able to use the highway since April 30.
“This is why we've been working 24 hours a day,” said Cincinnati engineer John Deatrick, who heads the Fort Washington Way project.
The two-year, $280 million Fort Washington Way overhaul started in July 1998. The goal: Make the highway, which stretches from the Brent Spence Bridge to the Lytle Tunnel, safer for drivers and pedestrians.
Since Fort Washington Way opened in 1961, the traffic outgrew the highway. Also, ramp additions over the years made the highway dangerous.
The new Fort Washington Way will correct those problems. It will be narrower and straighter, taking up about 14 fewer acres than the old highway.
The highway project is on budget and on schedule to open August 2000, Mr. Deatrick said.
The lanes opening Monday will eventually carry only westbound traffic. With the switch, two exit ramps won't carry traffic to the right place anymore and will close permanently at 9 tonight:
• The ramp from eastbound Fort Washington Way to Pete Rose Way.
• The ramp from Levee Way to eastbound U.S. 50 and Interstate 471.
The traffic movement from downtown to those areas will be restored when the Fort Wash ington Way project, including building a new Second Street, is done in August.
For now drivers can use ramps to I-471 and eastbound U.S. 50 at the eastern end of Fifth Street. Without the Pete Rose Way ramp, drivers can get into downtown Cincinnati by taking the Fifth Street exit from northbound or southbound I-75. Southbound I-75 drivers can also take the Seventh Street or Freeman Avenue exits. Detours are posted.
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