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Document Dump: Columbus' Official Blueprints for Hudson Street Bike Path

  1. Download the plans
  2. Where can you find out official information?
  3. When does work start?
  4. Where and when are the road closures?
  5. Hours of construction
    1. Temporary side street and driveway closures
  6. What's in the construction plans?
  7. What do the intersections look like?
    1. Hudson and I-71
    2. Hudson and Cleveland
  8. What's the bike path like?
    1. Eastbound
    2. Westbound
  9. Wouldn't it be nice if…?
  10. Why this post?

The City of Columbus is finally moving forward with the Hudson Street bike lane from I-71 to Cleveland Avenue. On March 23, 2022, the Council passed Ordinance 0485-2022 to fund the project.

What's included in the project? The funding ordinance has this to say:

This contract includes reconstructing Hudson Street from I-71 to Cleveland Avenue. The reconstruction will include installing new curb, full pavement reconstruction, reconstruction and modification to the existing median on the east leg of the I-71 at the Hudson Street intersection, sidewalk on the north side, a shared used path on the south side, street trees, new traffic signals, storm sewers, a new 24” water main, new ADA curb ramps at intersections, and other work as may be necessary to complete the contract in accordance with the plans and specifications set forth in the Bid Submittal Documents.

I acquired a copy of the Bid Submittal Documents to find out everything that's in the plans.

The title page of the plans, included here as decoration.
Part of the cover of the Bid Submittal Document. The project covers Hudson between I-71 and Cleveland Avenue.

You can keep scrolling and view the screenshots with my commentary, or you can download the full plans to find the bits that will affect you. I'll include references to page numbers in the plans document, to help you find additional information there.

Download the plans

Download the plans (135MB PDF)

How official is this PDF? Well, it comes from the office of Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, chair of the Public Service Committee, who sponsored the $19,395,049.60 ordinance that approved the project. I think it's pretty legitimate.

Where can you find out official information?

Visit the city project page

If you live on Hudson, or operate a business on Hudson, I expect that the city will notify you whenever they feel like notifying you.

When does work start?

The City's project fact sheets page says that construction will run from spring 2022 to summer 2024, subject to funding and weather. The city's 2020 Fact Sheet for the project shows the following phases:

Phase 1: McGuffey Road to Cleveland Avenue, beginning spring 2022. Phase 2: I-71 to McGuffey Road, beginning spring 2023. Completion anticipated summer 2024.
McGuffey to Cleveland, then I-71 to McGuffey.

They'll work east to west, and wrap up sometime in 2024. But when in 2022 does work start?

To double-check, I asked the Department of Neighborhoods. They forwarded me a link to The Columbus Dispatch's article, which doesn't have firmer dates.

I asked Columbus 311; they emailed the following:

Per your inquiry, we have been told by the Division of Design and Construction project manager that they have not yet had their spring project meeting that will happen sometime around the end of April, so the project will most likely start sometime in May after the pipes are ordered and delivered.

If you live between Hudson and Weber, now is the time to start getting comfortable making left turns on to westbound Weber. When construction starts, the project will block westbound traffic on Hudson.

Where and when are the road closures?

Plan for westbound Hudson Street to be closed from Cleveland to McGuffey in 2022, and from McGuffey to I-71 in 2023. Here's the individual phases of the project, as detailed on page 13 of the plans:

Utility Pre-Phase 1

Traffic:

Construction:

The storm trunk line replacement appears to be between Dresden Street and Cleveland Avenue, if I'm reading page 5 right.

Phase 1

Traffic:

Construction:

For more about phases 1A and 1B, see pages 17-22 of the plans. The "phases" are how the document talks about which side of Hudson is being worked on. Phase 1A is the north side of Hudson; Phase 1B is the south side of Hudson.

Utility Pre-Phase 2

Traffic:

Construction:

I'm not sure why the water main work is broken out into its own "pre-phases", unless that work won't involve tearing up the streets.

Phase 2

Traffic:

Construction:

For more about phases 2A and 2B, see pages 23-36 of the plans. Phase 2A works on the north side of Hudson; Phase 2B works on the south side of Hudson. Phases 2A and 2B are further broken down into steps, which have to do how traffic is routed at the I-71 ramp intersection. In Phase 2B Step 2, there's no right turn from I-71 onto Hudson eastbound.

Key Takeaway: Westbound traffic will detour to Weber. Only eastbound drivers will be permitted on Hudson for duration of the project.

Pedestrians: It looks like sidewalks will be maintained on one side of Hudson at all times.

COTA Riders: The plans don't say what will happen to COTA service during the project, sorry. Contact COTA, ask your driver, and keep an eye on COTA's service changes page

Hours of construction

One other neat tidbit on page 13:

Hours of Operation in ROW:
Allowable hours for work shall be from 9 AM to 3 PM, M-F, all day Saturday & Sunday.

I guess they're trying to avoid conflicts with rush-hour traffic.

Key Takeaway: They probably won't disturb your sleep.

Page 12 of the plan says no work on OSU football home game days, Christmas, New Year's (day or eve? unclear), the 4th of July and Red White and Boom, Memorial Day, Labor Day, or Thanksgiving.

Temporary side street and driveway closures

On page 15, we learn more about closures of roads and driveways intersecting Hudson:

Side street closures shall only occur from 9AM to 4 PM, Monday through Friday. No two, or more, side streets shall be closed at the same time.

There shall be at least one access to commercial properties when closing driveways. Side street access is acceptable. The commercial property owner/manager shall be notified 48 hours in advance of closure.

Residential driveways shall only be closed between 9AM and 4PM, Monday through Friday. The resident shall be notified 48 hours in advance of closure.

If you want to peep how traffic patterns will change during this time, here's where you can find the traffic-cone layouts and temporary street signs in the plans PDF:

Phase Work Pages
1A McGuffey to Cleveland, south side of Hudson 17-19
1B McGuffey to Cleveland, north side of Hudson 20-22
2A I-71 to McGuffey, south side of Hudson 23-29
2A I-71 to McGuffey, north side of Hudson 30-36

What's in the construction plans?

What do the intersections look like?

If you want the details of a particular intersection, check out the full plans that I linked at the start of this post. Generally speaking, any given intersection's biggest change will be that Hudson Street has moved north by a few feet. As a result, the plans include redoing sidewalks, driveways, signs, and crosswalks.

The intersections with the largest changes are at the east and west ends of East Hudson Street, where it meets I-71 and Cleveland Avenue.

Hudson and I-71

An outline of the intersection of Hudson Street at the I-71 Northbound ramp, the Shell station, and the intersection with Homecroft Drive. The concrete median between the two sides of Hudson has grown bigger, narrowing eastbound Hudson to one lane with no space for passing, and blocking left turns from eastbound Hudson onto Homecroft.
The diagram of Hudson Street at the intersection of the I-71 Northbound ramp and Homecroft Drive. (page 2)

Notable changes in the new design:

I think they should've extended the median further to the west, to allow a spot for pedestrians to wait in the middle of Hudson. And they should've added a bicycle turn box. But I also know that drivers love to creep forward at this intersection, and the end of the median is an indication of where cars should stop moving forward, so the choice the engineers made here makes sense.

For more details of this intersection, check out these pages in the PDF:

Hudson and Cleveland

Hudson Street makes a slight jog headed westbound from Cleveland, to put more space between the road and the shared-use path.
The diagram of Hudson Street at the intersection of Greenwich Street and Cleveland Avenue. (page 5)

The Cleveland Avenue end of Hudson doesn't have much in the way of large changes; just a nice curve where the realigned Hudson edges closer to the shared-use path. The shared-use path continues across Cleveland Avenue at the crosswalk.

For more details of this intersection, check out these pages in the PDF:

What's the bike path like?

It's better than the current setup, but I don't envy people who will try to use the bike path to commute.

Here's two sample bike trail use cases, both crossing North Linden on Hudson:

Most of what I write below is applicable to people using scooters, hoverboards, mobility aids, strollers, wagons, shopping carts, and really any mode of travel that isn't a car or truck. Bikes and scooters stand out as modes of transit that are banned by law from riding on sidewalks, so I go into more detail about how to manage moving from the shared-use path to the road and back again. But once you're on the shared-use path, we'll all be using it together.

Eastbound

If you're coming from the west on Hudson, you have to deal with the bridge over I-71. The bike lane stops in the middle of the intersection; you must merge with motor vehicle traffic or jump the curb to get onto the bridge's narrow sidewalk.

Since bicycling on the sidewalk is illegal in Columbus, I'll assume that you stay in the 35mph travel lane, riding centered on the bike arrows in the middle of the lane. The driver behind you may decide to honk impatiently. Bicyclists have a right to use the road, same as anyone else.

A bike path through the intersection is drawn in green, with red paths leading to X's marking paths that do not work to get to the bike trail.
The bicyclist's path through the I-71 ramp intersection, headed east. (Modified page 408)

On the east side of the intersection, there's no easy off-ramp for bicyclists into the new shared-use path. All the curb ramps for the shared-use path are in places where you'd need to ride into oncoming I-71 offramp traffic to get to the shared-use path, so you continue riding in the 35mph travel lane.

At the first opportunity, you exit the road and get onto the shared-use path via a driveway.

A bike path down Hudson Street diverts onto the shared-use path at the first available driveway: Family Dollar or Wendy's.
The bicyclist's path diverts into any available driveway, to get onto the shared-use path. (Modified page 409)

Wave to the generous drivers at Family Dollar or Wendy's, or continue in traffic a little while longer, and use the lower-traffic driveways for the hotel or the Columbus city schools warehouse.

I'd expect most bicyclists to be on the shared-used trail at this point, because Hudson remains a 35mph road in these plans. The smooth new pavement will invite higher speeds, and aggressive drivers will use the center turn lane to pass when possible.

As a bicyclist, you must use unmarked crosswalks to cross Pontiac Street, Velma Avenue, Hiawatha Park Drive, Atwood Terrace, Howey Road, Grasmere Avenue, and Jefferson Avenue.

If you're headed north on the Hiawatha Street bike boulevard, there are no pavement marks or signs for the crosswalk across Hudson (pages 265, 411). Keep an eye out for cars, because those drivers are probably not paying attention to you!

(Maybe this oversight will be fixed with the dedicated Hiawatha Park Drive shared-use path, planned for 2024-2025.)

McGuffey Avenue has a traffic light, so wait there for the pedestrian signal to cross.

Lexington Avenue has no light or marked crosswalk. Hamilton Avenue has a stoplight and crosswalk. Gerbert Road, Ontario Street, Homestead Drive, and Medina Avenue do not. Dresden Street has a light and crosswalk. Bremen Street and Greenwich Street do not.

Finally, you reach Cleveland Avenue. The shared-use path continues across Cleveland Avenue via the pedestrian crosswalk, so you will need to dodge people waiting at bus stops for the routes 11, 31, 6 and CMAX COTA buses.

So now that we've crossed Cleveland, let's turn around, and head to Clintonville.

Westbound

Bicyclists heading westbound on Hudson from Cleveland Avenue will need to decide where they're going to enter the shared-use path. The easiest way will probably be to use a crosswalk signal at Cleveland Avenue to cross to the south side of Hudson, or at McGuffey. Hiawatha bike boulevard users will need to wait for a break in traffic to cross at the uncontrolled intersection.

At the western end of the shared use trail, bicyclists can continue to the dedicated bike lane on Hudson on the west side of I-71. Getting to that bike lane is a problem and this project does not really address it.

Here are three possible routes for shared-use path bicyclists to get to the bike lane on the east side of I-71:

A bike path through the intersection is drawn in green. The path starts on the shared-use path, crosses Hudson at the crosswalk, and then uses three different strategies, detailed below, to head west.
The bicyclist's path through the I-71 ramp intersection, headed west. (Modified page 408)
  1. Cross Hudson on the crosswalk, then use the crosswalk as an improvised bike turn box to position yourself ahead of motor vehicle traffic at the light. Wait for the light to turn green, cross the bridge.
  2. Cross Hudson at the crosswalk, then bike on the sidewalk until you reach the gas-station parking lot driveway. Turn left from the parking lot and merge with traffic.
  3. Cross Hudson at the crosswalk, then bike through the gas-station parking lot to Homecroft Drive. Turn left from Homecroft onto Hudson, and merge with traffic.

After you've crossed the bridge, keep right to stay in the marked, unprotected bike lane.

Merge into the travel lanes at the intersection of Hudson and Summit Avenue, and stay right until you get to the intersection with Summit Street. Swerve north into the bike box on Summit Street, then wait for the light to change (and maybe press the pedestrian walk button).

If you're not comfortable riding in traffic: Walk your bike across the I-71 bridge and across the Silver Drive crosswalk. Walk your bike west on Hudson until you reach the protected bike lanes on Summit.

Wouldn't it be nice if…?

Projects for another day.

In the meantime, we can look forward to the 2024-2025 Hiawatha Park Drive shared-use path, which will cut under I-71, allowing bicyclists to avoid the I-71 bridge's dangerous merges.

Why this post?

Because this new shared-use path seems like an exciting addition to Columbus' existing bike infrastructure. It's the first connection between the Olentangy River Trail and the Alum Creek Trail that doesn't require bicyclists to route through downtown or fight for space with inconsiderate drivers.

Because people were talking about the construction project and I got interested enough to ask for the docs.

Because, having the docs, I felt an obligation to share them with the wider community.

Document Dump: Columbus' Official Blueprints for Hudson Street Bike Path - April 21, 2022 - Ben Keith