The roads will remain open, but Bergstresser said once major construction begins, likely in mid-to-late May, Dorothy Lane will have just one lane in each direction for most of the next year. He said the city hopes to keep two lanes of traffic each way on Wilmington, but acknowledged that will not always be possible. The current double left turn lanes at the intersection will be single turn lanes during construction.
Hwashik Jang of the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission said the Dorothy-Wilmington intersection’s 60,000 vehicles per day put it among the 10 busiest in Montgomery County.
There are three major components of the project, which stretches a few hundred yards out in each direction from the intersection.
- Wilmington Pike will be widened near the intersection so it has three "through" lanes northbound and three southbound, plus a double left-turn lane. When the road is finished in 2011, the three northbound lanes will have moved east onto an area that now is a grassy strip in front of several businesses.
- Unlike a simple resurfacing, all pavement will be removed down to the dirt layer and built back up. Bergstresser said the concrete road base dates to the late 1960s, and all of the pavement "has just taken a pounding."
- Three Haig Avenue houses that have been bought by the city will be knocked down, so that Haig and Betz Crossing can be connected, creating a small loop road on the northwest side of the intersection.
The $5.5 million project is the start of a huge two-year stretch of street work in Kettering. Other parts of Wilmington Pike — from Smithville Road north to the city limits and from Stroop Road south to the city limits — will be repaved starting in June. Large stretches of Wilmington will be down to one lane each way, with the south portion taking eight to 12 weeks, according to city officials.
The city plans also two major projects in 2011 — reconstructing the intersection of Woodman and Patterson and repaving the entire length of Dorothy Lane. The city’s 2010 road projects alone have a price tag of $14.5 million, but thanks to state and federal grants, the city will pay only $3.8 million of the total.
Bergstresser said many of the city’s main roads had almost reached their 12- to 15-year repaving window when this winter’s cold and snow caused things to “come apart at the seams.”
City Manager Mark Schwieterman asked residents and commuters to be patient.
“We did have a lot more potholes than we normally do (this winter), and we’re getting on those,” he said. “Right before we do Wilmington Pike, it’s probably at the worst it’s ever been. ... But in a two-year cycle we’ll make significant improvements to a majority of our thoroughfares.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2278 or jkelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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