Improvements — mainly repaving — to sections of Forrer Boulevard and Marshall Road consume most of the funds the city plans to commit when it applies for federal funds next month, Kettering Assistant City Manager Steve Bergstresser said.
Traffic signal upgrades to be part of that package, he said, include intersections at: Research Boulevard and County Line Road; Founders Drive and Research Boulevard; Vale and Woodman drives; Woodman Center and Woodman drives; and Wilmington Pike and the Meijer store.
“These are all important projects to us,” Bergstresser said. “They help to maintain the city’s infrastructure. And we try to get federal funding for our large infrastructure projects whenever possible.”
The road projects, city records show, include the following sections and estimated local funds:
- Forrer from Smithville Road to Woodman Drive, $900,000.
- Marshall from East David Road to Wilmington Pike, $624,796.
The cost of the traffic signal work, which would involve converting them from span wire to mast arms, is $553,326, Bergstresser said.
A decision on projects receiving federal funding is likely by spring 2021, he said.
Kettering typically seeks federal funds to cover 60% of a project’s cost, but if the city is successful the work would not likely go forward until 2025-26, Bergstresser said. Forrer was last repaved in 2011 and Marshall in 2006, he said.
Commonly, the city’s main thoroughfares — such as Far Hills Avenue, Wilmington Pike, Dorothy Lane and Stroop Road — are repaved in 12- to 15-year cycles, according to Bergstresser.
“On roads like Marshall and Forrer, which are both collector-level streets that carry less traffic, we can typically squeeze out more years because of their condition — simply because they’re not carrying as much traffic load as the others,” he said. “Sometimes we can get up to 15 to 20 years on those types of streets.”
Construction on Wilmington Pike, meanwhile, continues. It is being repaved from East Stroop south to the Centerville city line.
The project, which began after Labor Day, includes lane closures that reduce traffic to one lane in each direction, Kettering City Manager Mark Schwieterman said.
The project is expected to be complete by the end of the month, he said.
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