Pippin Road in midst of $12.5M overhaul

COLERAIN TWP. – Pippin Road motorists will likely be seeking lots of alternate routes as Hamilton County rebuilds a major north-south artery in its largest township.

The Hamilton County Engineer’s Office is working on one part of the larger project now: the 1.5- mile stretch of Pippin Road between Compton and Springdale Road. The road is closed between Adams Road and Wenning Road in Colerain Township while contractor Rack and Balluer Excavating Co. installs storm sewer.

Hamilton County Engineer Ted Hubbard says that section should be finished by March 31, weather permitting, and the contractor will move north to finish the storm sewer installation to Springdale Road. He said the storm sewer work should be done by late summer.

Then, work will begin on reconstruction of this north section of the Pippin project. The road will be widened at some intersections to allow for turn lanes, and curbs, gutters and reconstruction of the aging pavement are part of the project.

Hubbard said local traffic is being maintained in the storm sewer project area. Rack and Ballauer’s detour routes traffic from Adams Road to Hamilton Avenue to Springdale Road to Pippin Road and vice versa.

The project isn’t cheap: $6.4 million for the portion between Compton and Springdale, funded by grants and the Hamilton County Engineer’s Road and Bridge fund, Hubbard said.

Hubbard said the project is getting some help. Federal grants through the OKI Regional Council of Governments will pay about $2.5 million and State Capital Improvement Grant money from the Ohio Public Works Commission will kick in about $1.1 million. The county is shouldering the remaining $2.8 million for the first half of the Pippin Road project.

The county will bid the second half of Pippin Road, the 1.5 miles stretching from Galbraith Road to Compton Road, this year, and work will likely begin this year as well. Hubbard said the Compton-to-Springdale phase cost about $2 million more than initially anticipated. This caused him to raise his cost estimates for the second half of the project to $6.1 million as well.

Work is expected to wrap up on this part of Pippin Road during the summer of 2018. But that doesn’t mean relief will come quickly for all Pippin Road travelers. The county engineer said it could be as late as 2019 before the work on the southern portion of Pippin Road is complete.

“This has been years in the making, but it is a project we believe needed to be done. All told, we are spending $12 million on a major north-south traffic route in Colerain Township,” Hubbard said. “We are making a substantial investment in the infrastructure of the community.”