Wednesday evening, hundreds of residents, leaders, officials and business owners flooded the Zanesville-Muskingum County Conference and Welcome Center for what many expected to be a public meeting with ODOT, as advertised.

While no formal meeting was actually underway inside the building, interested parties had the opportunity to learn each phase of the proposed project that would cause for a major redesign of Downtown traffic patterns and informally discuss their concerns with ODOT officials.

According to Julie Gwinn of ODOT, the project is a result of years of deteriorating bridge and pavement conditions along Interstate 70 in the Downtown corridor.

“We do annual bridge inspections on every bridge that ODOT maintains, and the bridge inspections for these bridge structures show that they need to be repaired, as well as our pavement,” said Gwinn.

Additionally, the condition of the pavement on both the ramps is poor, Gwinn said, and causes county crews to constantly perform maintenance on the roadway “because things happen that shouldn’t be happening” on some of ODOT’s surfaces.

According to Gwinn, if the routes were to go without major rehabilitation, it could result in the closure of the bridges on I-70 near Downtown.

“I guess the worst case scenario is it’s possible we’d have to close bridges because we don’t want anybody to be in an unsafe condition, so we need to be able to do the maintenance,” said Gwinn. “In order to do that, we have to have projects like this to fix them.”

The proposed project is the first major rehabilitation the area has seen since I-70 was routed through Downtown in the 1960s.

The project as currently proposed would eliminate the I-70 bridges located at Fifth and Seventh Streets, as well as the existing roadway underneath those bridges, thus eliminating routes connecting Downtown proper to the businesses along Zane Street on the other side of the bridges.

In its place, a new route would be created along Sixth Street to connect those areas while making the roadway a two-way street. Additionally, Seventh Street would also turn into a two-way route with ramp access to I-70 West.

The bridge above Sixth Street would be repaired in the process.

The entire project is planned to be completed in five phases over the course of five years beginning this upcoming winter.

As each stage progresses, drivers will have to adapt to new routes and closures, both temporary and permanent.

From the emergency response perspective, Zanesville Fire Chief Jeff Bell said fire, police and medical responders will have to continually adapt to the new routes and traffic patterns.

“Every 9 to 12 months we are going to have to change where our response routes are,” said Bell. “So that is a concern there. So we have to pre-plan that.”

Bell said the hospital routes are equipped with technology that reads when an ambulance or fire truck is responding on emergency status and will give them green lights the whole way so they don’t become stuck in heavy traffic.

Muskingum County Emergency Management Director Jeff Jadwin shared the same concern.

“If their crews gotta respond from the north end to the south end, the traffic jams are going to be a problem,” said Jadwin. “We’re going to have to discuss staging more crews [in] different locations and using mutual aid from other departments to help.”

Not only is Jadwin concerned for the county’s first responders, he’s also thinking about how the project will impact surrounding counties.

“It doesn’t just affect our county,” said Jadwin. “I’ve got to deal with Morgan, Perry, Guernsey County, Belmont County because those hospitals over there transfer a lot of patients either to here or to Columbus, so anything that’s slowing up traffic here will be a big thing.”

With Downtown business in mind, Chamber of Commerce President Dana Matz said he is concerned with transportation from north to south via Downtown routes.

“It’s critical that this projects happens, we understand that,” said Matz. “We appreciate the conversation that ODOT is allowing us to have and we are hoping that they will listen to the concerns from not just the business community, but the citizens as well.”

Hundreds of citizens voiced their concerns in-person and on paper Wednesday evening.

While waiting in line, long-time Zanesville resident and owner of Ditty’s Downtown Deli, D.J. Dittmar, discussed his desire for an outer-belt in Zanesville with those standing nearby in agreeance.

“If a tanker truck were to keel over on the bridges, like over the river, and burn the bridges down, for three years, I-70’s going down Main Street in Zanesville,” said Dittmar.

While that’s not in the current plans for ODOT, Dittmar and anyone else with suggestions could propose their ideas to the department.

Some in attendance were there to educate themselves on the project before commenting, like South East Area Transit Executive Director, Howard Stewart.

Stewart said he was just learning about the plans, but knows the potential traffic congestion threatens to slow down bus services. However, he said the changes should not affect the current routes once completed.

Speaking on behalf of ODOT District Five was Morgan Overbey, who wanted to address some of the rumors she has heard about the project.

“We are not permanently closing any ramps through this area, through the Downtown corridor,” said Overbey.”Yes, there will be ramp closures during the construction, but no permanently closed ramps.”

Additionally, Overbey said the Fifth and Seventh Street exits from I-70 into Downtown will not be closed at the same time at any point during the project.

Overbey added that no roads will be widened and no commercial or residential property will be taken.

For those who could not attend the meeting, ODOT is accepting public comment through Oct. 18.

For an entire overview of the project, click here.