Marika Lee

mlee1@communitypress.com

Improvements are coming to the bike trail crossings in Downtown Loveland thanks to grant funding.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Friends of the Little Miami State Park secured grant funding to repave and restripe the Little Miami Scenic Bike Trail within city limits starting in September. In conjunction with ODNR’s repaving, the city will improve safety and traffic flow at the two bike trail crossings.

“All of the overhead signage will be removed. There will be advanced signage notifying the cars that there is a bike trail crossing ahead. What the bikers will have is a stop sign and stop bar on the ground. It will make them come to a stop at the edge of the curb,” City Manager Dave Kennedy said.

The improvements include a rectangular rapid flashing beacon, or RRFB, being added to the bike trail crossing on Loveland Avenue. Cyclists will hit a button that will activate the beacon and alert traffic.

“The Broadway (Street) one will only have the stop signs and the striping. There is no need for the RRFB over there. We were able to get our hands on a state safety grand that will tie in with the grant funding for the paving,” Kennedy said.

The improvements are estimated to cost $43,078 and will be paid for in full by the State Safety Grant. Kennedy added the city will only be responsible for about $1,000 to the bidding process. The signs were included in the way-finding sign agreement the city already had with Brownstone Design.

“This will be a pretty major upgrade to that intersection. This should really help that second bottle neck you hit when you come through town on a nice day,” he said.

Kennedy said the city’s portion of the project should be completed in mid-August before ODNR’s paving starts in September.

“It has been a long standing issue and I just want to thank everyone for their efforts in going forth and finding a way of accomplishing this with essentially no money out of the city’s coffers,” Mayor Mark Fitzgerald said.

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