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Ohio Department of Transportation officials say the bridge work over the highway is one of the first pieces of a project to pave 10 miles of I-675, roughly from Wilmington Pike to North Fairfield Road by summer 2022.
Work on the Indian Ripple bridge began Monday, largely near the ramp to I-675 north. ODOT spokeswoman Kathleen Fuller said contractors will be doing staging work from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day this week.
Fuller said this bridge and others along the I-675 project will see minor repairs, rehab and paving, including work on the joints where the bridge meets surrounding pavement.
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Starting next week, and lasting about two months, the outside lane on each side of the six-lane bridge will be closed. That means westbound traffic (toward The Greene) will have two through lanes, and eastbound traffic (toward Beavercreek) will have one through lane plus a right turn lane to I-675 north.
Fuller said the lane closures will stop just at the end of the bridge, so it won’t affect traffic on the ramp from southbound I-675 to Indian Riffle. ODOT officials said signage will be in place all around the bridge to make traffic patterns clear.
All of the work on the bridge comes at a time when many of the stores and restaurants in The Greene are closed or operating in a limited fashion. The bridge normally carries thousands of cars to and from the site each day, but there was little traffic Monday afternoon.
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ODOT officials said there was about a 46% decrease in traffic volume statewide after Ohio’s stay-at-home order took effect last week.
The larger construction on I-675 itself will begin in various locations intermittently this year, but the majority of the work will take place in 2021, according to ODOT. That’s a $26.1 million project being led by the John R. Jurgensen Co.
There will be some lane closures on I-675 later this spring as crews set up a “contraflow,” for cars to switch to the opposite side of the highway at one point, allowing more intensive work on the other side. There will also be construction on the ramp from eastbound U.S. 35 to southbound I-675.
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