Highway ramp near campus to close day after commencement

Summer Cartwright
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 17:39:12 +0000
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Part of Cannon Drive construction will close the on- and off-campus ramps of State Route 315. Credit: Jack Westerheide | Photo Editor

Two of Ohio State’s major entry and exit points are set to close May 7, the day after Spring Commencement.

The off-ramp of State Route 315 at Cannon Drive will close and remain shut down for 50 days. The closure is part of the Cannon Drive relocation projects,a massive construction endeavor on the Wexner Medical Center campus.

The on-ramp for SR 315 will close when construction on the exit is complete, and also remain off-limits for an additional 50 days, pending full Board approval Friday.

Highway closures are “all planned with the state, all planned with the city,” said Lynn Readey, the associate vice president of Ohio State’s facilities operations and development, adding that this phase of construction will be ”quite the challenge.”

The shutdown of the major entrance and exit to and from campus will likely disperse medical center and campus traffic to King Avenue, just south of Cannon Drive, said Jay Kasey, the senior vice president of administration and planning in the Board’s Finance Committee meeting. ?

Patients visiting the hospitals will be sent driving instructions during the closings, Kasey said.

Construction on Cannon Drive began in September, just days before Ohio State’s first football game of the season. The relocation project displaced medical center staff parking, leaving some frustrated with an additional road bump in the everyday work commute.

With 100 days total of ramp closures, it’s likely traffic on campus will become more congested, however a chunk of that time will be during the summer, when the majority of students are off campus. ?

One other large construction project set to increase in scale after commencement are repairs to The Oval, a project that will fence off a large amount of Ohio State’s famous green space this summer.

The timeline for the total Cannon Drive project is two years and the cost continues to be “watched closely” by the Board, according to Finance Committee documents.

This article has been updated