MOUNT VERNON — Mount Vernon’s city crews have resumed upgrading the intersections on Coshocton Avenue, with an eye to streamlining the time drivers have to wait before they can pull onto Coshocton Avenue.
The city completed three intersections in 2025: Vernonview, Lowe’s, and Woodlake Trail.
Up next are the TSC, Walmart, and Upper Gilchrist intersections.
The upgrades replace outdated equipment, offer remote equipment access and enhance pedestrian safety along the city’s busiest corridor.
They also include audible pedestrian signals (APS or audible peds) for the visually impaired.
Public Utilities Director Tom Hinkle previously explained the improvements by saying, “the intersections will be able to communicate with each other better.”
“Because we’re going to the audible peds, we have to do some work to the curbs and the ramps along all three of those intersections to meet today’s standards,” he said this week at the mayor’s press conference.
Standards include:
— Where the pedestrian button is located compared to the ramp.
— Level landing areas to access the button from a wheelchair.
— Ensuring the button is in line with the crosswalk, because it indicates which direction the visually impaired would walk.
Workers shore up edges on New Gambier Road
Reporting potholes
Mount Vernon residents can call 740-393-9501 to report a pothole.
Workers continue to patch potholes, mow, and grade alleys.
Crews completed installing just under 2,400 linear feet of concrete safety edge in the most critical areas of New Gambier Road.
“We’ve had issues with the ditches there in the hills on New Gambier Road. The water just keeps eroding away the ditches and it obviously starts to erode up underneath the edge of the road,” Hinkle said.
“That allows the asphalt to break off on the edges of the road. So this concrete support was put in hold that.”
New Gambier Road is part of the 2025 chip seal program, as is East Chestnut Street.
Hinkle said the bump-outs on East Chestnut and High streets were done for pedestrian safety. They shorten the distance the pedestrian is in the crosswalk and calm the traffic.
Crews will move the RFBs (rapid flashing beacon) on East Chestnut into the bump-out and install a set on East High.
Additionally, the city removed the crosswalk in front of the courthouse on East High. Pedestrians can cross at Gay Street, the service center, and McKenzie Street.
Workers added a curb at the previously removed crosswalk on East Chestnut between the court annex and the Veterans Services Office.
Hinkle said that after the foundations cure, workers will install the RFBs and re-stripe the crosswalks.
