Emergency contract approved

Officials say Ohio 7 will stay closed for more than a month

From staff reports
A stretch of Ohio 7 between New Matamoras and Newport will remain closed until an emergency contract to prevent future rock slides is finished, Ohio Department of Transportation officials said Thursday.

The stretch of road three miles north of Newport has been closed since several boulders, some the size of small cars, fell onto the road on March 20 from the cliff above the road. ODOT District 10 public information officer Stephanie Filson has said the rock slide was most likely weather related.

“We’ve been working toward opening one lane of traffic ever since we had to close it last week,” District 10 Deputy Director Larry Woodford said in a news release Thursday.

On Thursday, the district received word that ODOT Director James Beasley approved the funding necessary for the emergency contract.

Woorford said they are considering ways to lessen the impact on motorists. The work could begin within the next 10 days. They will forgo the short-term rock removal previously planned and focus on a full removal project, he said.

“We anticipate completing the work in less than 30 days once the construction begins,” Filson said in the release. “We know that means prolonged delay and inconvenience for motorists, but it will minimize the impact on traffic, overall.”

She said that under the current plan, all of the work would be done in one push. After that, traffic would function normally again.

The project will continue until the hillside has been scaled back. ODOT will meet with local officials next week to discuss the timeline of the construction project.

The release did not indicate whether a contractor had been selected to do the work.

A secondary project has already started along the river side of the highway at the same location. Filson said that prior to the rock fall, the district had sold a contract to repair a slip directly across the road.

It was that contract that prompted power lines to be relocated in the area.

Some people living near the slide have blamed last week’s slide on the clearing of trees associated with that relocation. Filson said it may not be that simple.

“Oftentimes, slips along the Ohio River reach beneath the roadway, causing subsurface shifts that we don’t see above,” she said. “The existing slip is far more likely to have affected the hillside than a recent utility move.”