Refugee Road reopens after $11.2 million widening, roundabout project to handle growth

Maria DeVito, Newark Advocate
·4 min read
Cars travel through the new roundabout at Refugee Road and Etna Parkway at the border between Pataskala and Etna Township on Monday. The Licking County Transportation Improvement District is in the end stages of a year-long, $11.2-million road improvement project to widen Refugee Road to three lanes from Mink Street to Etna Parkway with roundabouts at each intersection.

As Pataskala and Etna Township's corporate parks keep growing, Licking County is wrapping up a $11.2 million road project to meet future traffic demands while also making drivers safer.

The Licking County Transportation Improvement District is in the end stages of a year-long road improvement project to widen Refugee Road to three lanes from Mink Street to Etna Parkway with roundabouts at each intersection.

The widened Refugee Road officially opened Wednesday, said Bill Lozier, the transportation improvement district projects director. The Refugee Road and Etna Parkway roundabout opened in November, and the Refugee Road and Mink Street roundabout opened earlier this month.

The project, which Lozier said has been in the works since December 2020, was a collaboration between the county, city of Pataskala, Etna Township and developers TPA Group LLC and Red Rock Developments, which contributed a combined $2.6 million to the project. Pataskala's corporation limit runs through the center line of Refugee Road.

Pataskala and Etna Township received a $7 million loan from the Ohio Department of Transportation's State Infrastructure Bank that is split evenly between the two entities. The project also received more than $600,000 in grants.

Lozier mentioned two more Red Rock warehouses — the fifth and sixth distribution-style structures built by the South Carolina-based company in the Pataskala Corporate Park — are being built at Etna Parkway and Refugee Road, and that's partly because the improvement project made the site more attractive.

"We were able to enhance these development sites with our roadway improvement project and we did it in a collaborative manner," Lozier said. "We got broad participation in this. I'd like to say that development paid for itself in this case."

Lozier said income tax revenue generated by the future businesses will pay for Pataskala and Etna Township's loan payments.

Pataskala Public Services Director Alan Haines said the improvements were done to handle the eventual increase of truck traffic on Refugee Road, which was previously a two-land road with no berms. "There was no way that was going to handle truck traffic," he said.

A view Monday of the widened three-land section of Refugee Road just west of Refugee Road and Etna Parkway. The Licking County Transportation Improvement District is in the end stages of a year-long, $11.2-million road improvement project to widen Refugee Road to three lanes from Mink Street to Etna Parkway, with roundabouts at each intersection.
A view Monday of the widened three-land section of Refugee Road just west of Refugee Road and Etna Parkway. The Licking County Transportation Improvement District is in the end stages of a year-long, $11.2-million road improvement project to widen Refugee Road to three lanes from Mink Street to Etna Parkway, with roundabouts at each intersection.

Haines said they also realized they would need left turn lanes. Officials decided to add the single, center two-way left turn lane all the way between Mink Street and Etna Parkway so they weren't doing it piecemeal in the future.

"We wouldn't have to be continually tearing up the road and having more construction, closing the road or limiting traffic," he said. "We wanted to get it all done in one shot."

Haines said the roundabouts will make the two intersections significantly safer. There have been severe crashes at both, particularly at Refugee Road and Etna Parkway because some drivers thought it was a four-way stop but there were only stop signs for drivers on Refugee Road. Haines said drivers were pulling out in front of cars traveling on Etna Parkway — which has a speed limit of 45 mph in Pataskala and 55 mph in Etna Township — and getting hit.

For example, the city of Newark's West Main and Fourth streets intersection saw 16 injury crashes and 37 property damage crashes from 2013 to 2017. But after a roundabout opened in November 2022, there were no injury crashes and four property damage crashes in 2023.

"What we say about roundabouts is, especially in the beginning, they don't necessarily decrease the total number of crashes but they certainly decrease the severity," Lozier said.

With the two Refugee Road intersections, Lozier said, the roundabouts take away T-bone car crashes. Roundabouts have eight potential conflict points versus 32 at a traditional intersection, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration studies show that when roundabouts replace a two-way stop intersection, there is a 44% reduction in crashes and nearly a 90% drop in serious injury and deadly crashes, according to ODOT.

"In the beginning what we said was the mayors of cities loved roundabouts, but the traffic engineers weren't sure about them. And now I think everybody's embraced them," Lozier said. "They can handle more traffic and the severity of the crashes have gone down."

mdevito@gannett.com

740-607-2175

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Refugee Road reopens after $11.2 million project to handle growth