State changing order for U.S. 35/Woodman interchange ramp closings

Road project will continue in one form or another until fall of 2024, according to ODOT
Scheduled ramp closures on the U.S. 35/Woodman Drive interchange reconfiguration are changing with the next one not expected until September. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Scheduled ramp closures on the U.S. 35/Woodman Drive interchange reconfiguration are changing with the next one not expected until September. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

RIVERSIDE — Scheduled ramp closures on the U.S. 35/Woodman Drive interchange reconfiguration are changing, with the next one now not expected until September.

The $10.3 million interchange project earlier this month shut down the westbound ramp on the highway to Woodman for up to four months.

The plan had called for closing the ramp from Woodman to U.S. 35 west next month, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

But the next ramp targeted for work is now Woodman to U.S. 35 east, which is expected to shut down for four days, ODOT Spokeswoman Loryn Bryson said.

“I don’t have exact dates,” she said. “We will know once we are closer to” September.

Tens of thousands of vehicles travel daily through the interchange, located between Beavercreek and Dayton, and between Kettering and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The detour for the current ramp closure runs through Dayton. It includes westbound 35 to southbound Smithville Road to eastbound Linden Avenue to Woodman, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The interchange work is expected to last until the fall of 2024, ODOT said.

The goal is for the currently closed ramp to be reopened by Labor Day. While that phase is “still on track,” it may be shut down longer into the month, Bryson said.

The September closing is the last scheduled ramp shutdown until summer 2024, when that same access route will close again for about three weeks, she said.

Meanwhile, this spring ODOT shifted Woodman traffic in both directions to the southbound lanes. After work on the vacated side is complete, the plan calls for all Woodman traffic to shift into the northbound lanes and remain that way until September 2024, Bryson has said.

The project “is moving along as planned,” she said. “With that said, there have obviously been changes made and will probably continue to be made as (we) continue to evaluate the work zone and work through it.

“We want to make sure we are increasing the operation and the functionality” of the interchange, Bryson added.

The project is part of the multi-phase U.S. 35 improvements between I-675 in Beavercreek and Steve Whalen Boulevard in Dayton, according to ODOT.

About 62,600 vehicles daily on average traveled U.S. 35 east of Woodman in 2021, and the count was about 67,200 on the highway west of the road, according to the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission.

In that area of Woodman, the highest daily vehicle average for that year was 23,700 north of U.S. 35, data from the commission shows.

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