Plans for Houchard roundabout project expected early next year

Officials have settled on a timeline for the Houchard Road roundabout and extension project in Jerome Township – just one of the changes coming to the Route 161 corridor.

Union County Engineer Jeff Stauch said his office is working with the Ohio Department of Transportation and design consultants, waiting to get finished plans for the project east of Plain City.

“They will have finished plans to us (and) to ODOT probably in February,” he said. “And then the project can start getting built in spring, early summer of next year.”

That work will include the roundabout itself at Houchard Road and Route 161 as well as the two legs off either side onto the existing roadway and the future extension that will eventually run north to Warner Road. The rest of the work would be in 2027.

The plan would follow ODOT’s preference to build a two-lane roundabout to anticipate planned growth along the 161 corridor. Stauch told the commissioners in October that there was some hesitation from engineers involved to build a wider roundabout before traffic is there to fill it. But ODOT ultimately decided it would make more sense to build the project one time rather than have to add additional lanes in the future.

Houchard Road is just one of the planned projects or developments along the 161 corridor, an area that local officials are watching closely – so closely, in fact, they started a corridor-focused meeting group earlier this year.

The corridor group includes representatives from the City of Dublin, Union County, City of Marysville, Franklin County, Madison County, Plain City, Darby Township (Madison County) and Jerome Township as well as ODOT. It started to get ahead of the looming traffic issues that could come from development along the roadway.

Union County Administrator Bill Narducci told the commissioners recently they are continuing talks around how planning will look going forward as these projects materialize.

“We’ve had good conversations with the group. At this point, we’re kind of looking at what the next phase is,” he said. The group is looking at how to organize the points of focus, looking at establishing a consistent plan, setting development standards and setting guidelines for funding infrastructure among other topics.

Narducci said those are at least concerns and important considerations from the county’s perspective and they want to see positive development along the 161 corridor. He said with all the entities in the discussion, the county wants to make sure that development is happening for the right reasons.

“More importantly to me, I want to make sure that, we have all these different entities…we are making decisions, not based on trying to expand their authority, expand their control, prevent annexation or cause annexation but they’re doing it for the right reasons to help fund infrastructure in the region,” Narducci said. “That’s what my expectations and my hope coming out of this, that we set good development standards and that we also set policy on how we fund infrastructure.”

As it stands, some of the entities are already making moves along the corridor and Narducci said the county hopes ultimately there will be more cooperation. In addition to the existing residential developments already on Route 161 near Plain City, Dublin’s innovation district and Schottenstein Real Estate Group’s Madison Gateway project, both a little farther east, could significantly impact the road’s traffic footprint.

“To this point, Dublin has a planner that is working on some plans for them on the West Innovation District, which is out toward that area. Darby Township and Madison County have a planner that’s helping them with their comprehensive plan update,” he said. “So, the conversation is going to be, ‘OK, we have a lot of people at the table here…what does this look like moving forward?’”