MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon officials are turning their attention to a dangerous intersection on the north side of the city.
On Monday, Mount Vernon City Council members authorized the city to apply for a CORPO (Central Ohio Rural Planning Organization) grant to improve the intersection of North Sandusky Street, Cassell Road, and Upper Fredericktown Road.
City Engineer Brian Ball said the intersection is a significant safety issue with an increasing number of crashes and a recent fatality.
“We are seeing an uptick in injury crashes at this intersection,” he said.
Ball said he has no solution for revamping the intersection.
“We’re asking for money to work through the planning process and come up with probably five or six alternatives on how to fix the intersection,” he explained.
“Once we get that, that’s where the public involvement will kind of go in pretty deep.”
Unlike previous projects, the city is going door-to-door in advance to adjacent property owners, informing them of the project and getting their feedback.
North Sandusky Street is Route 13 within the city. Cassell Road is Route 13 outside of city limits.
Compounding the safety issue is that Crestview Avenue enters the intersection at a weird angle. Part of the issue is that northbound drivers do not use their turn signal when turning from North Sandusky onto Upper Fredericktown Road.
Both Ball and County Engineer Cameron Keaton have observed traffic at the intersection.
“What we see is a lot of risk-taking and a lot of near misses because it’s 45 [mph], but some people don’t get to that speed right away. You have a lot going on with this combination intersection,” Ball said.
Collaborative effort seeks to reduce crashes
The safety project would be a cooperative effort between the county, city, and Clinton Township.
Keaton will provide a letter of support. Clinton Township trustees passed a resolution to partner with the city. Ball will talk next with the county commissioners.
Safety improvements will likely include extending sidewalks north from James Street and Stump Street.
“The project would extend to connect to those sidewalks to get our complete streets because that’s a priority for us. It’s a priority for the township also,” Ball said.
“Again, we’re talking about planning and design right now in this phase,” Safety-service Director Tanner Salyers said.
“Realistically, the earliest we’d be doing anything, I believe would be 2029.”
The CORPO grant will cover planning and preliminary design and perhaps detailed design.
“We have a lot of things going on, but this is asking for a small amount of money to get started. When we see this project going closer to construction, we should be done with a lot of the larger projects,” Salyers said.
“The police station will be done. The court situation should be done. So this is getting our name in the hat for something that’s likely in 2029.”
“If you unfurl this scroll, you see years and years of work.”
Mount Vernon Safety-service Director Tanner Salyers
Revamping dangerous intersection has long-term aspect
Salyers emphasized the project’s long-term aspect.
“I don’t want anybody thinking we’ve got all this going on, how are we possibly going to pay for it, because we’re not planning on paying for it next year,” he said.
“I also don’t want the public to anticipate us going up there and just doing whatever we decide on doing. It’s not happening next year.”
Ball said that when the design team has several reasonable alternatives, the city will begin full-flown public meetings.
“But again, we’re trying to bring each of these people along the way with us,” he told the council.
Design professionals and the Ohio Department of Transportation must approve the final solution.
However, Ball said, “We have a lot of latitude to bring [community members] in the room and understand their needs and wants.”
He also said ODOT will allow the city some latitude in how long the reconstruction will take. Factors include:
•Allowing the contractor to work longer hours.
•Whether the city maintains one lane of traffic during construction.
•Requiring the contractor to work only at night and keeping the road partly open during the day.
“There are a lot of things that we can do to mitigate those challenges. We just need to know what people’s practices are,” Ball said.
The engineer acknowledged that a roundabout might be in the mix of options. He also said if a roundabout is a serious solution, the design vehicle “will be the largest combine that is manufactured.”
On Monday, council members waived the third reading of the legislation because the grant deadline is Aug. 8.
Ball said the city does not yet know the estimated cost of design services, the city’s 20 percent match, or the amount of money the city will apply for through CORPO.
