Bridge Street Switch Underway in Chillicothe; Both Directions Back Monday Evening

CHILLICOTHE — The Bridge Street traffic pattern switch is underway in Chillicothe, with crews beginning work at 7 a.m. Sunday to prepare the concrete for painting lane markings on the new northbound lanes between Riverside Drive and Marietta Road, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s project update, as reported by JNewsNetwork.

Bridge Street — State Route 159, at U.S. 35 — is the city’s main north-side commercial corridor, and drivers felt the switch immediately. JNewsNetwork reported traffic queued in a single lane between barrels on Bridge Street at U.S. 35 at 12:19 p.m. Sunday, with the new lanes beside the queue still closed while the pattern switch proceeded. ODOT advised motorists to expect traffic delays on Bridge Street this week.

The schedule from here is a four-day sequence, per ODOT’s update as reported by JNewsNetwork. Crews will continue restriping the roadway on Monday, and the department hopes to have traffic moving in both directions on Bridge Street again by Monday evening. On Tuesday and Wednesday, crews will restripe the stretch from Marietta Road to the Chillicothe Mall and Zane Plaza, reducing Bridge Street to one lane in each direction through that work.

The goal, ODOT said in its update, is to have all lanes in a final configuration for the winter by Thursday morning — including three lanes in both directions. That finish would put the corridor’s reopening a week early, ahead of Thanksgiving, one of the heaviest local shopping and travel weeks of the year for the Bridge Street retail district.

For Chillicothe drivers, the practical impact is front-loaded: the heaviest delays fall on Sunday and Monday while the northbound lanes are prepped and painted, then shift to the Marietta Road-to-mall stretch on Tuesday and Wednesday under a one-lane-each-direction pattern. Anyone headed to the mall, Zane Plaza or the U.S. 35 interchange should budget extra time on those days and watch for barrels and changing lane markings, which will not match the pattern drivers used last week.

The switch itself is the visible payoff of the construction drivers have been living with on the corridor: the new northbound lanes between Riverside Drive and Marietta Road were built alongside the existing roadway, and Sunday’s work — prepping the concrete and painting the lane markings — is what allows traffic to move onto them. Until that striping is done, the new pavement sits closed beside the live lanes, which is exactly the picture JNewsNetwork described at midday Sunday: a single queued lane between barrels, with fresh, empty lanes waiting next to it.

The timeline matters because of what Bridge Street carries. The stretch from Marietta Road north past the Chillicothe Mall and Zane Plaza is Ross County’s busiest retail run, and the U.S. 35 interchange at its south end ties it to the region’s main east-west highway. A final winter configuration with three lanes in both directions, in place before Thanksgiving week, removes the construction pattern before the corridor’s heaviest shopping traffic of the year arrives — the reason an on-schedule, week-early finish is more than a construction footnote for local stores and shoppers.

What we know — and what we’re still waiting on

What we know: the switch began Sunday morning, the restriping sequence and the Thursday-morning final-configuration goal come directly from ODOT’s project update, and Sunday’s single-lane queues were observed at midday. What we’re still waiting on: confirmation that the Monday-evening two-direction reopening happens on schedule — restriping is weather-sensitive work — and ODOT’s final notice when the winter configuration is in place. ODOT posts project information at transportation.ohio.gov/BridgeStreet, JNewsNetwork noted.

The Bridge Street work is one of several transportation changes moving at once in the Chillicothe area. Related coverage: Chillicothe Transit Adds Three Electric Vans for Curb-to-Curb Demand Response Rides and Bids Close Monday to Clear Hocking River Logjam Under Athens Bike Path Bridge.

What happens next: restriping continues Monday, with both directions expected back by Monday evening, the mall-stretch restriping following Tuesday and Wednesday, and the final winter lane configuration targeted for Thursday morning, according to ODOT.