Local officials say a fatal crash near the I-70/I-270 interchange last month re-emphasizes the need for safety improvements in the freeway corridor.

Last month, the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 6 Office released a study that seeks solutions to traffic congestion and crashes along I-70 East from Livingston Avenue near downtown Columbus all the way to Fairfield County and the state Route 256 East exit, which can bring motorists to Reynoldsburg, Pickerington and Violet Township.

The study notes the interstate corridor, dubbed the “Far East Freeway” by ODOT, experiences 60 percent more traffic volume now than when it was built in the 1960s. It also identifies the corridor as central Ohio’s third-most congested and “high-crash freeway location,” with more than 800 accidents annually.

According to the study, there have been eight traffic fatalities along the corridor in just the past three years. That number increased to nine on Jan. 27 when Natalie Stentz, 39, of Columbus, was killed after a Dodge Durango headed west on I-70 rolled over safety cables in the median and struck her minivan just east of Brice Road.

“The state is engaged in a Far East Freeway study right now and I think they should be applauded for restarting that study,” Violet Township engineer Greg Butcher said.

However, state funding may not take care of the short-term solutions needed to prevent some accidents.

“We would like to keep talking about this and talk with our neighbors in the region to bring a renewed emphasis to the problems out there,” Butcher said.

He and Greg Bachman, his engineering counterpart at the city of Pickerington, both have concerns about the Far East Freeway, particularly where traffic backs up at the I-70/I-270 interchange to Brice Road, and at the I-70/state Route 256 interchange.

“From driving that section of I-70 and newspaper reports, there is far too much weaving movement and news stories about crashes,” Bachman said. “Reducing congestion on this section of I-70 is important to our residents who commute each day to Columbus, and it is also important to the whole regional economy.”

According to District 6 spokeswoman Breanna Watzka, ODOT continues to meet with stakeholders for each of the five interchanges identified in the Far East Freeway study to develop plans for reducing congestion, traffic backups and crashes. She noted the plans currently don’t call for additional through lanes on I-70, but possibly for auxiliary lanes between interchanges.

“Right now, we’re in the study phases of that corridor,” Watzka said. “We’re authorizing a consultant to come up with different alternatives. We’re looking for input from our stakeholders as far as priorities for the corridor.”

Aside from local engineers, one public official who has reason for pushing ODOT to prioritize upgrades at I-70/I-270 is Pickerington City Councilman Brian Sauer.

On Sept. 2, 2011, Sauer’s mother-in-law, Bonnie Glandon, was killed after the vehicle she was in was rear-ended by a flat-bed truck while sitting in stopped traffic attempting to get from I-270 South to I-70 East.

“Anything they could do to notify people of what’s coming up, that there’s stopped traffic up ahead, would be an improvement,” Sauer said. “I want to see that whole interchange at 270 and 70 redesigned because it’s a death trap.

“That’s the biggest bottleneck,” he said. “I think the biggest thing we can do as a community here — and that’s not just Pickerington, it’s Reynoldsburg, it’s Pickerington, it’s Violet Township — is to lobby ODOT as a unified voice.”

Sauer said he and family members have been calling for ODOT to install warning signs near the I-70/I-270 interchange that alert drivers to stopped traffic.

Watzka said ODOT is working to put up the signs, but as of Feb. 3, no schedule for the project had been set.

“Right now, we have draft concepts for long-term solutions,” she said. “In the short term, there’s a project to install warning signs at I-70 and 270 that say, ‘Watch for stopped traffic.’ That project is in the final planning stages. Unfortunately, I don’t have a timeline for it.”

As for long-term improvements, Watzka said ODOT intends to hold public meetings this spring to share upgrade concepts.

By next winter, she said, ODOT hopes to have all the environmental clearances its needs to proceed with any freeway construction or redesign.

“In summer 2014, we hope to move forward with design and right-of-way acquisition,” she said. “We’re shooting for construction by 2015 or 2016.”

The continued study of the corridor and future upgrades is welcome news to local officials. However, they remain concerned about how quickly those improvements might come due to project prioritization.

A larger obstacle might be funding. Watzka said improvements to the total corridor are estimated to cost $200 million to $400 million, and there currently is no way to pay for them.

“ODOT is trying to break the mega-project up into multiple, smaller projects,” she said. “We’re looking in the future at securing some safety money, as well as some money from local governments and MORPC (the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission).”

Bachman, who last year helped Pickerington obtain a $5-million ODOT safety grant for improvements to Route 256 in the city, said he’s concerned that funding issues will be much more difficult to remedy than roadway redesigns.

“We are concerned that funding will ever be available for this,” he said.