Would a second outerbelt assist the Columbus space deal with development| Opinion
William Murdock is government director of Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Fee.
That is an thrilling time for Central Ohio.
Collectively we’ve constructed a rising area vibrant with alternatives, one which’s attracting new folks and companies and attractive our youngsters and graduates to remain. Investments from Intel, Honda, and others affirm what we already know: it is a great spot to name dwelling.
Progress brings pressing readability to put money into each essential and transformative tasks. We’d like massive pondering in order we develop greater, we are able to get higher.
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On the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Fee, we work with communities to create an atmosphere for prosperity. A technique is thru our transportation planning: utilizing massive concepts to create higher choices for everybody.
One massive thought.
Enhance our present system mission by mission throughout the area.
With Intel, supporting the transportation wants of Licking County and close by communities is important. Important work is underway to make sure the mission is well-served, however we should always rally round efforts to enhance the roads, bridges, trails, and transit wanted for development, security, and high quality of life.
Present roads and highways across the area want upgrades. Plans envision main enhancements to present routes, sensible know-how tasks, and new connections in rising Delaware and Fairfield Counties.
They embody essential freight routes at Rickenbacker and past. With focus, we may end long-awaited tasks alongside I-70 and I-71.
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One other massive thought?
Create new choices with trains, transit, and trails. We must always anticipate a system that serves everybody with extra selections, from the guts of the town to rising hometowns.
We now have a once-in-a-generation alternative to reconnect Columbus and rural Ohio to the nation’s passenger rail community, beginning with fast service to Cleveland, Dayton, Cincinnati, and presumably Chicago, Detroit, or Pittsburgh.
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LinkUS may create new speedy, dependable transit to spur wanted housing, new entry to jobs, and higher service for individuals who want it most. We must always put money into a sturdy regional transit community to enhance rural transit and construct upon the Central Ohio Transit Authority ’s progressive mobility tasks.
We may construct out the regional trails system with plans for 500 new miles, create devoted bike lanes, and put money into transformative efforts like RAPID5. These would elevate entry to nature, drive financial improvement, and join neighborhoods left behind.
And there are massive concepts to enhance security. Furthering initiatives like Imaginative and prescient Zero Columbus may stop 100s of deaths and 1000s of accidents yearly. In depth tasks for strolling and biking security are important.
What’s not a giant new thought?
The second outerbelt, a subject of latest dialog and has been mentioned many instances since I-270 was proposed within the Nineteen Fifties.
By MORPC’s preliminary estimates, a second outerbelt would contain constructing greater than 150 miles of recent freeway at a possible value of $10 to $15 billion.
That’s about 5 instances what the Ohio Division of Transportation spent final yr on highways for all of Ohio.
It may disrupt over 10,000 acres of prime farmland and delightful pure areas. A mission of such dimension and influence may make some hometowns unrecognizable, contain intensive use of eminent area, and divert assets away from different essential tasks.
Extra:A second outerbelt? Intel development forcing Ohio transportation execs to assume massive
A second outerbelt is an concept that neither fixes in the present day’s issues nor readies us for the longer term. Nineteen Fifties pondering will not be the way in which to organize for 2050.
For a lot much less, we are able to transfer ahead with all the higher massive concepts above to dramatically enhance everybody’s high quality of life.
We will repair irritating transportation errors across the area, enhance security and commutes, create new choices from trains to trails, construct new routes for freight and transit, and be extra aggressive for companies and jobs.
Getting higher as we develop greater?
That’s a giant thought worthy of funding.
William Murdock is government director of Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Fee.