2012 Year in Review

Post date: Jan 31, 2013 1:50:6 PM

The year 2012 brought many improvements for walking and biking in Gahanna. We have much to be thankful for and appreciate the support of the City of Gahanna and our residents, for continuing to include trail, sidewalk and roadway improvement funding in our budget. Here is a list of accomplishments in 2012:

• • Big Walnut Trail sections 1&2 completion provides access to Big Walnut Creek from Morse Rd to the baseball fields at Academy Park.

  • Big Walnut Trail section 3 construction in progress to provide access to Big Walnut Creek from the existing bridge between Academy Park and Woodside Green Park to Nob Hill Dr West. The asphalt is in place but the raised concrete boardwalk on the south end of this section must wait until the spring when the weather improves.

  • Improvements to existing trail include repair of wood on Academy Park/Woodside Green Park bridge and new concrete at the entrance to Woodside Green Park from Sumption Dr. The east side of the bridge has been modified to remove the sharp curve to make it much safer.

  • Construction of the Toopes comfort station near the Price Rd entrance to the trail.

  • Shared-use path from Taylor Rd near Rice Ave to Techcenter Dr, with a sidepath along Science Blvd to the Golf Depot at Central Park. Barry's Pub at the Golf Depot is a historic train station that was moved from the Hocking Valley Railroad. Many of us old-time cyclists remember riding up the Scioto River to the train station when it was a restaurant in Prospect in Delaware county.

  • Gahanna's first bike lanes on Techcenter Dr from Morrison Rd to Pizzurro Park, with sidewalks along both sides and a sidepath near Hamilton Rd for cyclists and pedestrians.

  • Improvements at the Hamilton Rd/Granville St intersection with median islands and state of the art pedestrian signals has made the intersection much safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

  • Members of the Gahanna BTAC helped the boy scouts at Blacklick Elementary provide a bike rodeo at their Pride Pedalers Peloton. The Blacklick students raised over $8000 for the OSU James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute.

  • SRTS awards from ODOT for sidewalk and crosswalk improvements at the Johnstown Rd/Cherrybottom intersection and on Heil Dr and Laura Dr near Jefferson Elementary school. Also, ODOT awarded funding for education and encouragement programs that will benefit all Gahanna elementary and middle schools students. We look forward to the 2013 construction of the projects previously awarded by ODOT SRTS for sidewalks on Beecher Rd, Shull Ave and new paths at Middle School West, Middle School East and Lincoln Elementary.

  • Completion of the signed shared roadway (bike route) project. We thank the Academy Ridge neighborhood for updating their deed to allow cyclists to use the neighborhood connector to the Academy Woods neighborhood.

  • New bike racks at Giant Eagle (on Hamilton), Panera and Chipotle (near Clark Hall) and Central Ohio Urology Group (on Techcenter Dr). We thank Gahanna businesses for providing bike parking for cyclists and to the planning commission for reminding developers to improve the pedestrian and cyclist friendliness of Gahanna.

  • Adult cycling course taught and four family bike rides led in conjunction with Second Saturdays.

  • Continued participation in MORPC bike/walk counts to evaluate the shared-use path, sidewalk and on-street bike route usage.

To put the primary focus of the Gahanna BTAC into perspective:

Cost to build Big Walnut Trail sections 1 & 2: $700K

Cost to build Big Walnut Trail section 3: $640K

Grants from ODNR for the above 3 sections of trail: $590K (44% of total cost)

Access to the beautiful Big Walnut Creek and connectivity for walkers and cyclists: priceless