City officials will take questions and provide information about planned improvements to Talley Road during an open house on Monday.
The drop-in event is scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Cal Brand Meeting room on the first floor in city hall.
Representatives from consulting firms Janssen & Spaans Engineering and Metric Environmental, LLC will join City Engineer Andrew Beckort to go over the plans for the public.
The project will include the widening of the northbound and southbound lanes to 11 feet, along with improvements to curb and gutter and the storm sewer, according to Beckort. There will also be a new 10-foot shared use path on the east side of the road and a 5-foot sidewalk on the west side.
The project will utilize federal dollars through the Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO). Federal funding would pay for 80% of the project and the city would be responsible to put up 20% in matching funds.
The final cost of the improvements is “still in the works,” Beckort said.
The project is slated for 2026 — Beckort estimated it’d be out for bidding in February with construction to start in spring at the earliest.
“I envision this taking probably two construction seasons to complete, we’d probably phase it a little bit, where the whole road won’t be shut down for two years,” Beckort said. “Probably up to the bridge would be one phase and then north of the bridge is a second phase.”
The public hearing is required as part of the federal aid process to have certain environmental documents approved for the project, but it also is a chance for the public to get a look at the transformation of a major thoroughfare that has been on city and county officials’ radar for awhile.
“Part of it is just so we get that information out to the community of what the road’s going to look like, what the impacts to the adjacent property owners might look like and just kind of share our design while there’s still a little time for small things to be changed,” Beckort said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
Improvements to Talley Road has been on the CAMPO-maintained Transportation Improvement Plan since 2017.
At that time, it was estimated that the Talley Road project would require $2,196,000 in federal money, as well as $740,000 in matching grants, The Republic previously reported.
