Chambersburg Road construction avoids delays, additional costs

HUBER HEIGHTS — Construction crews tasked with widening Chambersburg Road have avoided delay despite issues with unmoved telephone poles, Huber Heights City Manager Rob Schommer said.

Work started Aug. 15 in a project to widen a three-mile stretch of Chambersburg Road from Brandt Pike to Evergreen Woods Drive to help alleviate traffic congestion in the area.

Last week, city administrators said that AT&T’s failure to promptly move telephone poles as requested could result in the contractor charging the city stop or delay costs. The city’s law director sent a letter to the telecom company claiming the poles were a nuisance. AT&T agreed to move the poles by the end of the month.

On Wednesday, Schommer said the crews were able to avoid delay and continue working toward a Nov. 15 completion.

“The contractor was able to work around and now the poles are in the process of being moved, all is on schedule and moving along,” Schommer said by email.

Earlier this year, city council initiated plans to improve Chambersburg Road in anticipation of increased traffic on the section that leads to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The current project is the first of several phases anticipated to eventually widen the road from Brandt Pike to Ohio 4.

The cost of the current phase is budgeted for $880,000 and is funded through the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Surface Transportation Program, Schommer said. Huber Heights chipped in a $373,000 match through the permissive gas tax fund, he said.

Schommer said no general fund dollars are being used in the project.

The average daily traffic count on Chambersburg is around 10,000, and that number is expected to double by the year 2039, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.