NORWOOD — Final preparations are underway before Ohio Department of Transportation crews close the eastbound side of SR-562, the Norwood Lateral.
Often known as just the “lateral”, it connects I-71 to I-75 and is a main route to get across the city quickly.
The full closure of the eastbound side runs for 80 days, from March 10 to May 23.
Drivers we talked to in Norwood were shocked to hear about the closure.
“I was surprised because I couldn’t believe what you were telling me,” said Carl McGee.
McGee drives to Norwood to pickup his sister from dialysis a few times a week. He’s already thinking about how he’ll need to take the back roads.
“It’s going to put me so far behind coming in at 4,” said Michelle Grant.
Grant works at the UDF off Montgomery Road and drives in from the west side.
She said she might take Spring Grove Avenue into work, but worries that her usual customers and Metro drivers won’t be stopping in as much.
“It’s obviously an easy way to get across the city pretty quickly so it’s going to be pretty tough to have it shut down for a few weeks,” said Eric Schmitt who drives the lateral multiple times a week.
The project has been in the works since 2021.
ODOT Public Information Officer Kathleen Fuller explained the meat of the project involves rehabbing three bridge structures that makeup the lanes of the lateral.
“These would be the ones at Paddock, Reading and Ross Avenue,” Fuller said.
Ross Avenue is also known as Tennessee Avenue.
It’s the underpasses that are being worked on.
“We’re going to be doing things like replacing the joints, the barriers, the bearings, concrete work will be done, new steel is going to be installed,” Fuller explained.
“So there’s pretty much every component of each one of those structures will be repaired.”
The question every driver we talked to: why do they have to close all lanes?
“I can understand them shutting down a lane or something like that at a time, but to shut the whole, that whole direction down, it doesn’t make sense,” McGee said.
ODOT explained it came down to not having enough room.
“We have a minimum lane width we have to be able to maintain safely through the construction zone and allow for the contractors to be on their side of the barrier and also have traffic flowing through,” Fuller said. “We cannot meet the design standards we have in place so it’s really simply, we have no choice but to close it.”
Once the bridge work is complete, Fuller said the entire stretch will be repaved.
When we shared that part of the project with drivers, they agreed that it needed it.
“It has big craters, big craters that you hit and your car goes down in,” Stuckey said.
The contractor has 80 days to complete work on the eastbound side, but hopes to get it open sooner.
“Should be great, it’ll be nice and smooth,” Schmitt said.
“They’ve been doing it on 75 and 71 for awhile, it’s turned out great there so smooth roads are nice roads.”
Part of the project also includes work to lighting and new pavement markings.
Alternate routes include Fort Washington Way to the south and Ronald Reagan to the north.
Work will pause for a few weeks and then shift to the westbound lanes, which will also close for 80 days.
The westbound side will be closed from June 9 through September 27.
Norwood Police shared the closures on Facebook to try to warn drivers. ODOT is trying to get the word out as well.
“We try to live with it because we don’t have a choice,” McGee said.
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