Huber Heights studying ways to balance traffic, business growth on Old Troy Pike
Mar. 7—Mayor Jeff Gore says rapid growth in Huber Heights has led to more traffic on Old Troy Pike (Ohio 202) near Interstate 70 and the city is looking at ways to address complaints about the traffic congestion.
"My number one goal now and moving forward is finding a way that we can balance both of that, business growth with a traffic pattern that helps alleviate some of the congestion," Gore said.
Right now, Gore said the city is still in the earliest stages of planning. He, assistant city manager Scott Falkowski and the city's engineer, Russell Bergman, have been discussing options since the end of 2020, Gore said. Falkowski is a civil engineer.
Gore said he would like to have engineers employed by the city look at some "common sense" solutions before going to a traffic engineering firm.
Falkowski said complaints about the traffic on Old Troy Pike have increased in the past few years, especially on social media. He said the average daily traffic on Old Troy Pike south of I-70 is 26,500 vehicles.
"Traffic backs up when there are accidents further up on Old Troy Pike or on I-70 causing rerouted traffic into this area," Falkowski said. "Little things like cars trying to turn left off Old Troy Pike from a main driving lane will cause delays until they can cycle through."
Gore said the traffic problem is a sign of growth.
"I am incredibly happy we are dealing with growing pains instead of what we were dealing with the last five years, wondering why no one is coming to Huber Heights to build their business," Gore said.
Falkowski said the city has previously worked with traffic engineering firms on the traffic problem. The city has implemented several recommendations, including retiming of the signals along the corridor, adding a left turn lane from Waynetowne Boulevard to northbound Old Troy Pike, adding a left turn lane from southbound Old Troy Pike to Merily Way, additional signs not to block the intersection and widening Merily Way in front of the McDonald's entrance.
Falkowski added some revisions to the median north of Merily Way is in this year's city budget and planned for construction in either late spring or early summer. Other options are being investigated and once all the studies are complete a schedule can be created for implementation, he added.
It's not clear how much the city has grown in the last few years, but lots of new businesses are still moving in, houses are selling quickly and new developments are going up, Gore said. He said he expects when the 2020 census numbers come out, they will show that Huber Heights has grown.
"We've seen so much growth south of town that it's nice to be growing, it's nice to be wanted, it's nice to be needed and we welcome all those businesses with open arms," Gore said.
Contact Eileen McClory at 937-694-2016 or eileen.mcclory@coxinc.com.
