Grove City officials made their bid Nov. 12 to a state transportation council to increase the funding priority of the estimated $34-million Interstate 71-state Route 665 interchange makeover.

City officials "showed up in force" last week to present the interchange project to the Transportation Review Advisory Council, said city administrator Phil Honsey.

Their goal was to have the council increase the funding priority of the project from tier two to tier one, giving the go-ahead for millions of federal and state dollars already allocated for the project, Honsey added.

The Transportation Review Advisory Council was established by the state legislature in 1997 to prioritize for funding road projects that exceed a cost of $5-million.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Transportation's District 6 have told the city's representatives that their wish likely will be granted, Honsey said.

"I believe that will happen," he said. "I believe ODOT wants that to happen."

The project is scheduled for completion by 2011.

It would widen the current interchange at I-71 and Route 665 from two lanes to five. It would become what ODOT officials call a single-point urban interchange.

"It allows for a greater volume of traffic to move through the interchange safely and efficiently," said ODOT District 6 spokeswoman Nancy Burton.

The completed interchange would function similarly to the interchange at Sawmill Road and I-270, Burton said.

She said $5-million has been allocated for acquisition of property and right-of-way needed to expand the interchange. The properties of 20 owners will be acquired by ODOT, Burton said.

City and ODOT officials held a town hall meeting with the 20 property owners on Oct. 28, she said.

All the properties are businesses, and only one owner has asked to be relocated.

She said independent appraisers will be hired to name adequate prices for the owners.

"People are compensated at fair market value," Burton said.

Honsey said no property owners seemed upset at the Oct. 28 meeting with the pending property purchase.

Nevertheless, "we would expect there to be a healthy discussion between appraisers and the property owners," he said. "We see no significant property roadblocks."

Honsey said ODOT has the ability to implement "quick takes" when it concerns traffic projects and property acquisition. Any property dispute "won't draw out forever," he added.

"(ODOT officials) have got it down to a real science, as far as getting property at a fair market price," Honsey said.

He said the city has spent $12-million in preparation for the project, widening state Route 665 and relocating North Meadow Drive from the state route to Hoover Road.

Also, he said, construction for the relocation of Haughn Road on the northwest side of the intersection should be completed by mid-December.

In their presentation to the state transportation council, city officials said the interchange, built in the 1950s, no longer accommodates the current traffic environment. Its structural integrity is suspect, city officials have said.

Engineers' reports show that nearly 1,000 semi trucks use the interchange on a given business day. Also using the site daily are more than 400 Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio trucks, 400 FedEx trucks and 120 Marzetti distribution center trucks.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission estimated that the project, if completed, could double employment opportunities in the area, creating 15,500 new jobs.

Also according to MORPC, the area's population of 33,000 is expected to grow by 25,000 people in the next 30 years.

MORPC expects Grove City to be the largest suburb in central Ohio in the next 10 years.