Design work begins this year for Thornwood Drive improvements at West Main intersection
NEWARK — The city of Newark plans to begin design work later this year on improvements to Thornwood Drive at the hilly intersection with West Main Street, extending from River Road to Faye Drive.
The goal of the project will be to eliminate the steep hill around the intersection as part of the multi-community partnership to create a semi truck-friendly economic development corridor from Ohio 16 to Interstate 70.
The corridor is a route from Ohio 16 onto Thornwood Crossing, traveling on a new roadway avoiding the bridge on Cherry Valley Road, onto Thornwood Drive, continuing south in Heath to Ridgely Tract Road, then onto Ohio 79 into Hebron and onto Interstate 70.
"It'll really open up the whole west part of Newark and all the land south into Heath to have a better connection from 16 to 79," Newark City Engineer Brian Morehead said. "It's really important for the economy of the community."
City Council's Service Committee approved legislation Monday night to cooperate with the Ohio Department of Transportation on the project, scheduled for construction in 2025-26. The full council will consider it at its next meeting.
Morehead said the design work will determine whether the city will improve the existing Thornwood Drive or create a new road to the east of the existing one.
"We're looking at both ideas and studying the cost-benefit analysis on the best solution," Morehead said. "The existing road cuts into the side of the hill. It would take a lot of earth moved to make the slopes more gentle. Is it more reasonable to build a new roadway?"
Improving the existing road would not make it completely level, but it would have a much-improved grade, Morehead said.
The estimated cost of the project is estimated at about $6 million, but it would not be bid for at least three years, Morehead said.
The Licking County Transportation Improvement District last month chose the Thornwood corridor as its No. 2 priority project, with improvements to Jersey Township roads leading to the Intel Corporation computer chip development as its top priority. The state requires a ranking a projects to receive state funds.
The TID seeks $250,000 for the Newark project, which previously received $2.6 million in federal funds through the Licking County Area Transportation Study.
Bill Lozier, the TID projects director, said there is an Intel connection to the Thornwood corridor improvement project, which would make it the preferred north-south route for Intel traffic heading east on I-70, better than using Ohio 310, Ohio 37 or Mink Road.
Rick Platt, executive director of the Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority, said the Thornwood corridor is already used by employees at the Central Ohio Aerospace and Technology Center, which is managed by the Port Authority, as well as the four other industrial parks in the area.
"Intel is a future fact," Platt said. "There's a current fact that there are companies here in the corridor already that have the need for the Thornwood corridor. Five industrial parks in the corridor. It's enhanced by Intel, but not dependent on it."
North of the Thornwood Drive-West Main Street improvement is the $15 million Thornwood Crossing project, which extends Thornwood Crossing from Cherry Valley Road to Thornwood Drive, crossing Raccoon Creek and the bike path with a three-span, steel girder bridge, allowing the city to bypass the deteriorating Showman Arch Bridge on Cherry Valley Road.
The Thornwood Crossing project starts in June 2023 and will take 18-24 months to complete, so it will be finished before the Thornwood-West Main project begins, Morehead said.
kmallett@newarkadvocate.com
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Design work begins this year for Thornwood Drive improvements at Main
