The barrels are gone from the intersection of W. Broad Street and Georgesville Road as the Hollywood Casino opening is less than a week away. Penn National Gaming contributed $3.5 million to the road improvements, with more on the schedule.
Streets around the Hollywood Casino Columbus have been widened and repaved, but visitors will have to endure two more years of work on nearby I-270.
Reconstruction of the Outerbelt between Rts. 3/62 and Roberts Road is to continue through late 2014, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. However, crews will move away from the Broad Street exit — the casinogoers’ most likely route — until opening crowds thin out.
“We have 7 miles to reconstruct,” said Nancy Burton, spokeswoman for the ODOT district that includes Franklin County. “It doesn’t have to be done at that location during that time.”
Casino spokesman Bob Tenenbaum said a Wednesday invitation-only opening will give the casino, law-enforcement agencies and ODOT a chance to gauge traffic before the public opening on Monday.
About 13,000 people have been invited, and casino general manager Ameet Patel has said he expects 20,000 people on Monday. After the initial buzz, Tenenbaum said, he expects about 10,000 visitors daily to the casino at W. Broad Street and Georgesville Road.
If traffic backs up on I-270, Burton said, ODOT is prepared to limit highway access at other on-ramps. That’s how the agency manages Rt. 315 traffic before Ohio State University football games. ODOT also shut down ramps along I-71 to I-270 on the South Side when a recent $25 giveaway promotion at Scioto Downs caused backups of several miles.
The state began planning the $80 million reconstruction project on I-270 long before Penn National Gaming announced that it would open a casino on the site of a shuttered Franklin Township auto plant. Contractors are rebuilding all lanes and widening shoulders in both directions of I-270. Ramps also are being rebuilt at Georgesville Road, Broad Street and I-70.
Closer to the casino, crews have finished roadwork.
“A month ago, we probably had more orange barrels per capita than anywhere else,” said Chris Haydocy, the owner of Haydocy Buick GMC, which sits in front of the casino on W. Broad Street. “ What that is, is a sign of progress.”
Franklin County wrapped up an $8.1 million project last week that added two turning lanes from Georgesville Road into the casino site. The county also added curbs, streetlights and sidewalks.
The deadline was a moving target tied to Penn National’s opening date for the casino, County Engineer Dean Ringle said. Work was completed almost two weeks early.
Franklin County also has finished improvements at W. Broad Street and Georgesville Road, adding a right-turn lane from eastbound Broad Street onto Georgesville Road.
Penn National contributed $3.5 million toward the county work. Burton said the casino owner also is paying for I-270 signs telling motorists to use the Broad Street exit to get to the site.Next year, the state plans to widen and make other improvements to W. Broad Street east of the I-270 exit. ODOT said yesterday that 22 property owners along the street have donated land to the state to accommodate the project.
Haydocy said he doesn’t think traffic will get too heavy on the West Side. Thousands of workers used to come and go daily from the Delphi Corp. plant where the casino now is located and from a White-Westinghouse factory north of Broad Street.
The casino will be open 24 hours a day, so traffic will be spread out, he said.
“Twenty years ago, we used to complain about traffic around Christmas at Westland Mall, then we had none,” Haydocy said. “It’s 180 degrees again. We won’t complain now.”
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