The Ohio Department of Transportation is proposing to put $15.1 million behind four major central Ohio road projects over the next several years, in a draft funding list released Nov. 10 by the department’s Transportation Review Advisory Council and reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
The draft list covers 13 major projects statewide totaling $46.7 million, with funding starting in fiscal year 2027, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Four of the projects are in central Ohio, and each is aimed at a corridor where growth has been steadily adding traffic: State Route 161, the Sunbury Parkway corridor in Delaware County, State Route 315 in Columbus, and U.S. 33 southeast of the city.
The largest central Ohio items are tied at $4 million each, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The State Route 161 widening project in Franklin and Licking counties would receive $4 million in fiscal year 2029 for right-of-way work for the Mink Street interchange. The U.S. 33 widening project in Franklin and Fairfield counties would receive $4 million in fiscal year 2028 for preliminary engineering.
Delaware County’s Sunbury Parkway project would receive $3 million in fiscal year 2028 for right-of-way work and to advance project development, according to The Columbus Dispatch. The nearly $32 million proposal would build a new interchange at Interstate 71 and U.S. 36/State Route 37 and build a new road, Sunbury Parkway, to connect with I-71 — a corridor serving one of the fastest-growing parts of the Columbus region.
In Columbus itself, State Route 315 at Lane Avenue would receive $4.1 million in fiscal year 2029 for detailed design work, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The interchange area serves Ohio State University, the medical center district and neighborhoods on the city’s northwest side, and it is one of the most heavily traveled stretches of highway in Franklin County.
TRAC approves funding for projects under ODOT’s Major New Capacity Program, according to information cited by The Columbus Dispatch. Projects in the program cost more than $12 million overall, increase a roadway’s traffic capacity or reduce congestion, and are described by the council as critical to mobility, economic development and quality of life for Ohio residents. Projects that meet the criteria are submitted to the council, which selects projects to fund each year.
The council itself is made up of nine members, The Columbus Dispatch reported: the director of ODOT, six members appointed by the governor, and one member appointed each by the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and the president of the Ohio Senate. That structure means the draft list now moving toward a final vote has already passed through a panel that mixes the department’s own leadership with appointees of the governor and the legislature.
Central Ohio drivers are already living with work in some of these corridors. Readers following the region’s road work may recall the Winchester Pike bridge over U.S. 33, set to close Nov. 20 for a year-plus rebuild — a reminder that the U.S. 33 corridor southeast of Columbus is carrying both heavy daily traffic and a backlog of aging structures at the same time state planners propose widening it.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: What we know is the draft list itself, its four central Ohio projects, their amounts, their fiscal years and the work each amount would pay for, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch from ODOT’s Nov. 10 announcement. What we are still waiting on is the final vote: a draft list can change before adoption, and none of the four amounts is final until the council votes on Dec. 17. Individual construction timelines for each project have also not been set in the draft announcement.
The other projects on the statewide draft list, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch, include I-475 widening near Toledo, U.S. 30 relocation near Canton, I-70 widening in Montgomery County, the I-275 at I-75 interchange in Hamilton County, and the I-275 SmartLane project in Clermont and Hamilton counties, which TRAC would fully fund at $9.6 million in fiscal year 2028. The central Ohio share — $15.1 million of the $46.7 million total — reflects how much of the state’s growth pressure now sits in and around Columbus.
For residents, the practical effect of the draft list is sequencing. Right-of-way money, the stage funded for Route 161 and Sunbury Parkway, is what allows a project to buy the land it needs and move from drawings toward construction. Design and engineering money, the stage funded for Route 315 and U.S. 33, keeps a project moving through the years of planning that precede any orange barrels.
What happens next is public comment and a final vote. TRAC is accepting public comments on the draft list until Dec. 9 at [email protected], according to The Columbus Dispatch, and the council will vote on the final list at its Dec. 17 meeting. Residents, local officials and businesses affected by any of the four central Ohio corridors have until that comment deadline to weigh in on the record.