Preliminary maintenance of traffic is expected to be installed on State Route 47 between Fourth Avenue and Walnut Avenue beginning Monday, March 16, 2020. The Phase I closure will see the inside lanes, both east and west-bound closed. The outside lanes in each direction will remain open during Phase I of the project. Motorists are encouraged to plan accordingly as delays may be possible.
The City of Sidney applied for and received Small Cities Program and Transportation Alternatives Program grants for the proposed improvement of State Route 47 between Fourth Avenue and Walnut Avenue in 2016. The original plan called for construction of a roundabout at the intersection of State Route 27 and Wilkinson Avenue.
Based on the opposition to the project and comments received, city staff went back to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to request consideration of a revised project scope which would not include the reduction of lanes or the roundabout. Instead the city requested a decorative barrier wall in the median to replace the existing guardrail, increasing the sidewalk width on the north side of State Route 47 to 10’, decorative lighting, and the installation of a new traffic signal at Walnut Avenue. This revision was approved by ODOT in 2017. In addition, City Council opted to construct a directional island on Wilkinson Avenue on the north side of State Route 47 to prohibit any southbound movements (essentially making Wilkinson Avenue a dead end street southbound), but allow left turns and right turns onto Wilkinson Avenue from SR 47 with no changes to the south leg of Wilkinson Avenue during its July 2017 meeting. Temporary barriers were put into place in 2017 to give traffic time to adjust to the change.
In early October 2019, the city opened bids for the project. The project was awarded to DLZ, for administration /inspection services and Outdoor Enterprise, for the construction services.
The project completion date is September 18, 2020.