Miami Student

Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: Community

Before sidewalk construction can begin, plans from the Ohio Department of Transportation have to go through a series of approvals and changes.

The south side of Oxford spanning from U.S. Route 27 to Chestnut Street will continue to be without sidewalks until at least 2012.

Doug Elliott, Oxford city manager, proposed to the Oxford City Council in a February meeting to postpone a $400,000 agreement between the City of Oxford and Four Leaf Development to build sidewalks along U.S. Route 27 and to begin negotiating an agreement with Miami University to fund sidewalk construction on Miami property in that area instead.

According to Elliott, part of the agreement between Oxford and Four Leaf Development was to attempt to negotiate an agreement between Oxford and Miami, so that Miami would fund the new sidewalks on the university property.

Elliott said Oxford also decided not to go ahead with original plans since the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODT) will include a similar sidewalk project in their large-scale project for U.S.Route 27 in Oxford in 2012.

Construction will begin on sidewalks after the ODT finishes its current project of widening U.S. 27, adding

additional turn lanes at all major access points and upgrading traffic signals, Sharon Smigielski, a representative for the ODT said.

"We are concerned that even if we chose to go ahead with the initial project, we will have to do more work when the Ohio Department of Transportation begins their project," Elliott said.

According to Elliott, the ODT project is expected to cost $15 million, with $7 million used on construction in Oxford alone.

Smigielski said that Oxford will not fund the project. Instead, funding will come from the ODT and congressional funding.

Elliott said that the ODT's project is moving forward, but that since the city has just received the plans from the ODT, the plans must go through a series of approvals and changes before being approved. Only then will construction begin.

"The next step now is for the city to acquire a right-of-way on these roads so construction can begin," Elliott said.

According to Smigielski, the project is classified by the ODT as a minor project and is still in the preliminary planning stages.

"We determined that this project needed to be done based on a traffic study," Smigielski said.

Smigielski said the project has to go through a 10-step process which consists mainly of developing a purpose, determining the budget, conducting an environmental analysis, preparing stage designs, creating exact plans and receiving final approval of the project.

According to Smigielski, the ODT is currently working on environmental clearance.

"We need to make sure that we are not affecting the environment," Smigielski said.

Elliot said that while the preliminary engineering is complete, this is not a simple project.

"Sidewalks will not be built as soon as we initially thought," Elliott said. "This is a large scale project, but it is moving forward."

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