Hamilton now has higher hopes for North Hamilton Crossing with possible COVID-19 relief funds
Apr. 10—With Congress considering $2 trillion in infrastructure-improvement legislation, Hamilton officials now have higher hopes for a quick infusion of money for the proposed North Hamilton Crossing project.
North Hamilton Crossing would probably include two bridges along the northern edge of Hamilton that would span the Great Miami River and the CSX railroad tracks, giving motorists another option to travel east-west through the city. That would alleviate traffic on the sometimes-congested High Street and Main Street.
With the $144 million Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill under construction and expected to open around the end of this year, residents and officials have been concerned about backlogs of traffic on High and Main streets, which already have traffic backups during morning and evening commutes, and during other periods of the day.
Spooky Nook, which is to be North America's largest indoor sports complex, is expected to attract 10,000 or more athletes and their families on some weekends, as it does at the original Spooky Nook complex near Manheim, Pa.
Rich Engle, Hamilton's director of engineering, was asked during a recent city Public Utilities Commission meeting about the proposed new highway that would link Hamilton's West Side with Ohio 129, possibly near the city's eastern edge, at Hampshire Drive.
Engle told the commission members the city had been in contact with the office of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio "about getting possible earmark money for this project for construction.
"There's a lot of interest in it," Engle said, "and I think with the anticipated stimulus funding that's coming out of the new administration, that we should be very competitive with this project.
"There's a lot of interest in it, locally. We have major development that will see the benefits of it, and be benefitted by it, so, yes, we are doing as much as we can at the moment to keep everyone informed that might have funding available for us."
The Butler County Transportation Improvement District is leading efforts to make the project happen, including the creation of studies the Ohio Department of Transportation requires before it funds projects. Officials two weeks ago submitted an application to ODOT's Transportation Review Advisory Council for $3 million, "with the intent that the city would contribute the other $3 million to begin the preliminary design and final design of the two bridges, one over the Great Miami River and the other the CSX railroad tracks near North Third Street, (Ohio 127)," Engle said.
City Manager Joshua Smith has said most of Spooky Nook's traffic will arrive after rush hours on Friday and depart on Sundays, two periods when traffic is lighter on High and Main. But some on the city council have expressed more concern about heavy traffic.
The city, meanwhile, is building a "smart" traffic-signal system that will make it easier for city staff to adjust traffic signals during heavy traffic periods to improve vehicle flow.
City officials in Hamilton, Oxford and Middletown also are hoping federal infrastructure funding can help them create Amtrak stations on routes linking Cincinnati-Indianapolis-and-Chicago, as well as Cincinnati-Dayton-Springfield-Columbus-and-Cleveland.
