MONROE — With a proposed new interchange at the Michael A. Fox Highway and Interstate 75 in Liberty Township on hold, plans are moving forward to renovate and expand the nearby Warren County interchange in Monroe at Ohio 63 and I-75.

        The Ohio Department of Transportation has just released a bid for the environmental documentation and design phase of the interchange. But construction probably won't begin until at least 2006.

        Diana Martin, the agency's southwestern Ohio planning administrator, said plans have been in the works to improve the Monroe interchange since 2000. It now is moving forward in part because of safety concerns.

        The project was planned before a regional study now under way began, she said. Until that study is finished — sometime early next year — the state and federal authorities can't approve any I-75 interchanges, she said.

        “The (Ohio) 63 interchange was in the works, quite frankly, because the bridges are in such bad condition that we put false work (reinforcement) underneath to keep the concrete from falling on the vehicles,” Ms. Martin said Thursday. “There is a lot of truck traffic right there and the turning movements on that bridge are very tight. If we are going to replace the bridges, it doesn't make any sense to replace them with what we have if an improvement is called for.”

        The Ohio 63 overpass is a split bridge structure that will be replaced with a new overpass. The interchange off I-75 also will be redesigned, though it is not yet certain how many lanes will be added on Ohio 63, Ms. Martin said.

        “We will probably have more lanes on the exit ramps and more lanes on (Ohio) 63, but what that will look like will be determined in the next six months,” Ms. Martin said.

        Plans were made public earlier this year for a 1.1 million-square-foot mall anchored by a Dillard's department store off Ohio 63 east of the I-75 interchange.

        Butler County Commission Mike Fox, for whom the Fox highway is named, is upset the Monroe interchange is moving forward while Liberty's isn't.

        He called it a double blow for the county because it means jobs and development for Monroe before Liberty. Improvements to the Monroe interchange also may help Warren County move ahead in West Chester's “mall war,” he noted.

        “The Liberty interchange was proposed before (Ohio) 63. What we are asking for the Liberty Interchange is the same thing going on with the (Ohio) 63 interchange,” Mr. Fox said. “(Ohio) 63 shows they have the authority to move projects before studies are complete and have the authority to (make) projects exempt to the process and change the process.”

        Ms. Martin said that was not accurate. “We don't have the authority to ignore the process,” she said. “Whether we want to do it or whether someone else wants to do it, we have to follow the same rules and regulations.”

        Butler County and Liberty leaders want an eastern link off Interstate 75 at the Fox Highway. The proposed interchange would connect

        the Fox highway east of I-75 with Cox Road, which would be extended north from Hamilton-Mason Road. The $8 million project would be financed with local funds.

        A University of Cincinnati study released last week estimated that the Liberty interchange would lead to more than 15,000 jobs and $14.9 million in local property, income and sales tax revenues.

        Supporters also say it is critical to spurring commercial development needed for Liberty, whose population grew by 147 percent in the last decade. There is concern delays could lead to residential growth soaking up the land targeted for the interchange. One parcel nearby already is up for rezoning from business to residential.

        On Sunday, Mr. Fox received a tongue-lashing from Gov. Bob Taft after he and other Butler County leaders talked to the governor about the interchange after a ceremony for a new school complex in New Miami.

        Mr. Fox said he riled Mr. Taft when he told the governor the best way to move the Liberty project forward was to call ODOT's director and tell him to approve it.

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