COLUMBUS, Ohio – A highway trench on the North Side is a first for central Ohio and state transportation officials are giving motorists a virtual tour of what it will look like from behind the wheel.
The trench is currently under construction as part of the $75 million I-270/US 23 North Side Fix project, says Ferzan Ahmed, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Transportation District 6
EXTRA: Interactive map of the project
As part of the project to reconstruct the interchange, two new express lanes for northbound traffic on U.S. 23 (High Street) are being built about 25 feet below the middle of the roadway, Ahmed said. Designers call it a trench because it is open, except for when drivers travel beneath overpasses at Campus View Boulevard and Flint Road.
Ahmed says this is the first highway project in central Ohio to ever include a trench, which officials expect to take two years to build. Slightly more than three-quarters of a mile long, the trench has shoulders on sides, lights and drainage.
The trench begins right before Campus View Boulevard and exits just prior to Northwoods Boulevard South. Drivers heading into Delaware County can access the trench after they exit the I-270/US 23 Interchange.