The final major connection for Fort Washington Way won't open until the end of October — 10 months later than the original opening date. State highway officials said Friday they have decided to rebuild the entire ramp.

        The connection between northbound Interstate 471 from Kentucky onto westbound Fort Washington Way has been closed since August 1998. It was originally scheduled to open in December, but was delayed until spring. Now Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) officials are saying a new contract will be let by mid-March, with the new ramp scheduled to open Oct. 31.

DOWNTOWN ROUTES

Several portions of Fort Washington Way and the riverfront street grid will be closed over the next week for minor maintenance.     Fort Washington Way westbound will be closed until 10 a.m. today, when one lane should be reopened. All four lanes should be reopened by 6 p.m. today.     Broadway will be closed from Third Street to Pete Rose Way today and Sunday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m.     The ramp from Second Street to U.S. 50 eastbound (Columbia Parkway) and Interstate 471 southbound will be closed Monday through Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

        “This has been in the planning for about a year, and the decision was made to go ahead and let the contract within the past three months,” said Janis Cravens, spokeswoman for ODOT's District 8 office in Lebanon.

        “We wanted to wait until the majority of Fort Washington Way was done before we started this, because the driving public has been inconvenienced enough and has gotten used to this one being closed.”

        The new ramp will cost $14.3 million, 90 percent of which will be paid for with federal funds (the remainder with state highway funds).

        It will not be part of the overall Fort Washington Way budget, which has reached $328 million, city officials said Friday.

        The FWW budget received an additional $14 million in federal funds last month, according to Cincinnati transportation director John Deatrick. (The previous cost was listed at $314 million.)

        The original FWW budget passed by Cincinnati City Council in March 1998 was $146 million.

        But as the scope of the project has grown, so has the budget. Additional projects such as a new drainage system, a transit center below Second Street and the new Third Street viaduct increased costs. Mr. Deatrick said that none of the previous additional costs was due to overruns, but that remaining enhancements will be more expensive than estimated.

        The extra funds were tacked onto the federal transportation appropriations bill by Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, in a conference committee after the legislation passed both the House and Senate, according to Mike Dawson, Mr. DeWine's spokesman.

        “This is a vital project to the city of Cincinnati and to the entire region,” Mr. Dawson said. “The work being done there is necessary to improve the quality of life of people who have to use Fort Washington Way and and all of downtown.”

        Mr. Deatrick said $10 million of the federal funds will be funneled through ODOT.

        The other $4 million goes to the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, which runs Metro, Hamilton County's transit service. SORTA will use the money to finish financing the $45.2 million transit center and fully connect the facility to the rest of the riverfront. Construction on the transit center is to begin this spring, with a usable facility due by the end of the year.

        Mr. Deatrick said most of the $10 million earmarked for the roads will be used for functional as well as beautification improvements, but that plans for the money have not been finalized.

        “It seems that anything with riverfront development doubles and triples in cost,” said local attorney Tim Mara, a frequent critic of cost overruns for Paul Brown Stadium and growing Fort Washington Way costs.

        “It's not coming out of our pockets directly, but that's $10 million that could have been used on another project either here in Hamilton County or somewhere else in the state.”

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