By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LEBANON - A $3.1 million local match is needed to get state funding for the long-awaited Montgomery Road widening project.

County officials say they'll be asking property owners on Wilkens Boulevard in Deerfield Township to pitch in with road construction so there's enough money for the Montgomery Road project and others.

"They're the biggest benefactors of these improvements," Commissioner Pat South said during a meeting on the issue this week. "It's not like we have millions of dollars sitting in some bank just waiting for roadway improvements."

Deerfield Township Administrator Greg Horwedel and County Engineer Neil Tunison will be meeting in coming weeks with the Wilkens Boulevard property owners before coming back to the county commissioners with a proposal.

Tunison said the county needs to come up with its part of the cost to meet state-funding requirements. Deerfield Township, where the majority of the county's project is set, has been putting aside money and is likely to pitch in about $1.65 million.

Officials in Hamilton and Warren counties have been working for years to expand Montgomery Road from the Montgomery corporation limits to the Old 3C Highway near the Little Miami River.

The entire project is costing $59 million, though the state's Transportation Review Advisory Council is picking up the majority of the cost.

Montgomery Road carries about 30,000 vehicles a day and ranks high on state safety and congestion priority lists.

The estimated five-year construction project is expected to start in 2007. Most of the road will be widened to five lanes, though other parts will be two or three with turn lanes at key intersections.

There also will be some medians to prevent cars from turning and to keep traffic moving.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com