The Ohio Department of Transportation has announced the start of a bridge project along US 42 in Greene County - including the bridge over the Little Miami Scenic Trail. According to the ODOT press release:
"Contractors for the Ohio Department of Transportation will be replacing the bridge on U.S. 42 over the Little Miami Scenic Trail bike path, immediately north of the route's junction with S.R. 725 at Spring Valley. Along with replacing the structure and approach slabs, construction will include widening the bridge to match approach roadway width. Weather permitting, crews will start construction on Monday, February 5, and while the [highway] will be subject to two, separate weekend closures for beam setting later in the project, throughout construction, traffic will be maintained in one lane with temporary signals."
We reached out to the ODOT District 8 Public Information Office to ask about whether the trail itself may be closed or detoured because of this project. The answer we received is mostly positive. We are informed that no closure of the trail is intended for this project. However, there will likely be some intermittent, short-term closures, and specifically when US 42 will be closed for those two, separate weekends for beam setting. ODOT also shared a page of the maintenance of traffic plan for the trail that provides more information. They will be constructing a protective trail canopy under US 42 with lighting. So that’s the good news.
The downside is that up to 6 closures of up to 5 days each are authorized in the project plan, and the contractor only needs to give one week’s notice to do that. Hopefully they do not decide to use all (or any!) of those closures. If and when we are informed of closures related to this project, we will add them to the Detours and Closures page.
