Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

ODOT almost ready to take over Diley Road project

By ALAINA FAHY
The Eagle-Gazette Staff
afahy@nncogannett.com

PICKERINGTON - Pickerington city officials are almost ready to hand off the widening of Diley Road to the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Diley Road will be widened from two to five lanes between U.S. 33 and Hill Road North.

The goal of the nearly $14 million project is to decrease congestion on Diley Road.

Diley Road, which cuts through fast-growing Violet Township, is one of several heavily traveled streets in Fairfield County.

Project engineers have to determine right of way, said Brenda Vancleave, staff engineer with the City of Pickerington. Then private utilities, such as electric and cable, must be moved before ODOT can take over.

That work takes about eight months. ODOT takes over after the city hires a company to do the road widening, Vancleave said.

''It's going smoothly,'' Vancleave said.

There haven't been any serious problems that would hold up construction, said Edward Drobina, Pickerington service manager.

Construction along the stretch of Diley Road that runs through Pickerington could begin as early as July 2008.

ODOT becomes responsible for inspecting and managing the project once it's taken over.

The Ohio Department of Transportation projects 24,000 vehicles will travel along Diley Road by 2028.

ODOT will give the city funding for a five-lane highway because of the projected traffic increase. Anything less than five lanes would not be large enough.

ODOT will foot 80 percent of the bill, while the city pays the remaining 20 percent of the road widening project.

The project is expected to be completed in 2009, Vancleave said.

r u tellin me

Are you telling me that township residents do not pay state or federal taxes? Gee I need to move there!

I believe that 9 million dollars of this Diley project are coming from the Feds and the state, correct? So since there are about double the number of residents living in the township than the city, then I guess their contribution to this fed and state funding may be double than the city taxpayer correct maybe even more since the income level in the township is higher. The five million dollars the city taxpayers put in on their own may just make this even.

No! I ''r tellin u'' that...

That anyone who uses IM speak in trying to convey a message deserves to me mad fun of. However, I digress. I'm going to use some simple math here so try to keep up.

Let?’s use round figures of 20K people in the unincorporated VT and 10K in the city, just for arguments sake. Let?’s also use assume there are close to 11.5M people living in the state of OH http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39000.html In case you want to see the latest census figures.

I?’m using numbers from the article I know to be incorrect because the city is paying more than what this article would have you believe. However I?’ll use their numbers just for fun.

A $14M project at 80% being paid that would equal $11.2M. Now assuming this was 100% funded from the state, which it is not, it would mean every taxpayer in the state of OH is paying about $1 towards this project (11.5M people, $11.2M in funding). Now 20,000 ?– 10,000 = a difference of 10,000. So with the extra 10,000 people living in the unincorporated part of the township they?’re contributing about $10K towards a project that is 40% in the township. If we take US census into account it further dilutes the amount the ?‘township?’ folks pay Jeffrey.

So if you?’d like to continue your asinine assumptions please do so with something representing reality.

And while I was looking around for census figures before I decided to round for simplicity sake I found this. http://www.violet.oh.us/PDF%20Files/Violet%20final.pdf Take a look on page 20 of that about the grand commercial areas along 33. You?’ll probably need to click on the magnifying glass ?– you?’re looking for the color RED!

quick follow-up

I should have said ''...they?’re contributing about $10K MORE...''

Didn't want you to think the twp residents were only paying $10K towards this $14M projects when they're really paying all of $20K! And city residents pay about $225K to the township for 'administrative purposes' but once again, I digress.