As western Licking County rapidly grows along with Franklin and Delaware counties, so does the congestion on roadways across the region.
Traffic engineers have been studying all of this, and they have some ideas to share this summer and additional projects on the horizon.
The first set of ideas is about possible ways to address pinch points along the Rt. 36-37 corridor from the City of Delaware southeast to Rt. 161 at Granville, said Morgan Eibel, a public information officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation.
ODOT will present its recommendations for possible short-term remedies to congestion and safety concerns along Rt. 37 during two open-house sessions on July 30. They will be held from 9-11 a.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Big Walnut High School, 713 Miller Drive in Sunbury. Details of the current recommendations will be posted to this ODOT webpage on July 30.
Intel’s construction of a $28 billion computer-chip manufacturing campus just south of Johnstown and Rt. 37 – and the projected addition of nearly 800,000 people to the region in the next 25 years – were the impetus for the Rt. 37 study, said Erin Sheidlower, ODOT project manager for the corridor planning study.
“But even without Intel, there is a lot of growth and development,” she said. “The governor’s office and ODOT identified this for potential solutions that can be achieved in a 10-year timeline.”
The second set of ideas will offer thoughts about enhancing an existing roadway to designate as a possible main route from Rt. 161/37 south to I-70 – a roadway that would allow for increased volumes of traffic to move safely and efficiently from western Licking County’s growing commerce center to the interstate.
Generally, ODOT planners are looking at these corridors as possibilities for a connector between Rt. 161/37 and I-70: Mink Street, which runs directly south from the New Albany International Business Park to I-70 between Reynoldsburg and Etna; Rt. 310, which runs south from Rt. 161 through Pataskala and Etna to I-70; Rt. 37 south of Granville to I-70; and Thornwood Drive, which runs from Granville south through Newark and Heath, and connects with Rt. 79 near Hebron and I-70.
ODOT plans an open house on the north-south corridor possibilities sometime later this summer at the public library in Pataskala. A date has not yet been set, Eibel said.
And at the same time all of this is being studied, ODOT is also making plans for an eventual third lane on Rt. 161/37/16 from New Albany to the east side of Granville, she said. A project to rebuild bridges on Rt. 16 in Granville during the past two years included a third lane in each direction for future use – but those lanes will not be striped or open for traffic until third lanes are added in the future.
“There is no specific timeline and no funding for those lanes at this time,” Eibel said. “A stakeholder meeting will be held this summer on the widening of Rt. 161 from Rt. 62 (in New Albany) to Granville.”
A project to widen Rt. 161 from four to six lanes through New Albany during the last two years is being completed now with final asphalt paving.
Another project on a portion of the same roadway is planned for next summer – a “full-depth” replacement of the pavement on the four lanes of Rt. 16 through Granville east to Thornwood Crossing near the west side of Newark, Eibel said.
“They’ll take it all the way down to the dirt and then build it back up,” she said.
Sheidlower, the project manager for the Rt. 37 corridor planning study, said the current focus is on “36 key intersections that could have recommended improvements that would achieve a more efficient, safer environment … without impacting the community character.”
That might mean adding turn lanes or roundabouts – projects that could be done within the next 10 years – but it would not include bypasses around communities such as Johnstown and Alexandria, where traffic issues have raised concerns.
She said planners have met with leaders from the counties, cities, townships and villages along the corridor to discuss current conditions on Rt. 37 and get their input and reaction to ODOT’s recommendations. Some of the recommendations have changed as a result – and they could change again after the public weighs in.
Anyone who wants to comment can do so during either of the July 30 open-house sessions or online July 30 through Aug. 30, 2025. Final recommendations for the Rt. 37 corridor will come this fall, according to the ODOT website.
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.