The Clermont County Transportation Improvement District and the West Clermont Local School District are collaborating to make improvements to Bach Buxton Road and Clough Pike where West Clermont High School is being built.

The Clermont County Transportation Improvement District and the West Clermont Local School District are collaborating to make improvements to Bach Buxton Road and Clough Pike where West Clermont High School is being built.
By Kelly Cantwell
Editor

The Clermont County Transportation Improvement District and the West Clermont Local School District both approved an agreement to work together to improve the roads around the new West Clermont High School.

The school is located at the intersection of Clough Pike and Bach Buxton Road and will be open for fall semester 2017. The traffic impact study that the school district did required some improvements to the roads, so rather than just improving the road in front of the WCHS property, the district and the TID decided to work together to improve the roads in a logical way, said Pat Manger, Clermont County Engineer and the secretary/treasurer of the TID.

“It’s just another example of how the TID is working with a variety of partners in Clermont County to make things operate as efficiently as possible,” Manger said.

The improvements include widening the road, doing some resurfacing, putting in sidewalks, putting in turn lanes or extending turn lanes already in place for all four entrances to the school, said Ed Dyer, project manager for WCHS.

The changes will improve the safety on the road as well as accommodate the increased traffic, he said.

The TID will handle all the work because it is more efficient, Dyer said.

“They’re the experts at roads,” he said.

West Clermont will fund a maximum of $1.3 million, Dyer said.

The $1.3 million is the estimated cost of what the district is required to improve, Manger said. The TID will pay for $550,000 to do the additional work on the roads.

The improvements will cover Clough Pike from Bach Buxton to the McMann Road intersection and Bach Buxton from Clough Pike to Sparrowwood Boulevard.

If the TID did not collaborate with the district, Clough Pike would have had 600 feet of road from where the high school’s property ends to McMann Road, which is not what the TID considers logical, Manger said.

“We don’t want to just stop them at the school boarders,” Manger said.

Sparrowwood roughly lines up with the northern entrance to the school, he said.

“We’re hoping we’ll get started with some of the work yet this year,” Manger said. The TID wants to finish all the work by July 2017.