Colonel Glenn Hwy Construction | Photo by Grace Ramsdell | Edited by Kayli Thompson | The Wright State Guardian
Construction on Colonel Glenn Highway, on both the Beavercreek and Fairborn sides, is set to take place from now until the summer of 2022. The project includes adding a sidewalk to areas currently without it, adding a bike path, and some decorative elements.
Fairborn
The City of Fairborn will be doing construction from University Blvd. to the east of Center Park.
Fairborn will be focusing on adding a sidewalk to the south side of Colonel Glenn Highway, adding a bike path that will connect to the existing bike path on the Wright State University (WSU) side of the road, as well as adding mid-block pedestrian crosswalks.
“One of the big things we noticed was that there are RTA buses that do pick-ups and drop-offs on that side of the roadway and they’re dropping off pedestrians where there’s no sidewalk currently. So that was one of the major reasons why we wanted to move forward with this project,” said Fairborn City Engineer Lee Harris.
The Fairborn portion of the project is scheduled to begin next summer, with a year-long time frame.
“We are finishing the design and everything right now, and then we are looking to start bidding it out some time here next spring and it will probably start sometime next summer, probably around the July/August time frame,” said Harris.
Commuter WSU students should not expect any traffic along Colonel Glenn Highway during the construction.
“With this project, we are going to be maintaining traffic in both directions. If anything, they may see a lane closure here and there as they’re working on the side of the road installing the new sidewalks,” said Harris.
Beavercreek
The City of Beavercreek has already begun its portion of the project, which includes improving the sidewalk as well as aesthetic improvements.
“The Beavercreek project is between Zink Road and just to the east of Presidential Drive and includes decorative light poles, brick pavers, some landscaping, sidewalk, and the reconstruction of two traffic signals,” said Beavercreek City Engineer Jeff Moorman
The university’s involvement
WSU donated land to to assist in the project. The strip of land donated was previously owned by the Wright State Board of Trustees before being donated to the City of Beavercreek.
“Wright State University has definitely contributed to this project. The university participated in the design concepts and agreed to donate the property necessary to support the improvements. It is not typical for the affected property owner to contribute to such a project, but the university chose to transfer the property to the city of Fairborn at no cost instead of being paid for it because of the overall value of the improvements to the community,” said WSU Chief Operating Officer Greg Sample.
