PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — Scherer Hollow Road has reopened to traffic, ending a closure that lasted more than three months while crews completed a roadway improvement project on the narrow hillside route, the city said in a social media post reported by the Scioto Valley Guardian.
The road closed on Aug. 3 for the extended project, the Portsmouth Police Department said at the time, according to the Guardian. The closure cut off a route used by residents on the hillside above the city and sent drivers onto alternate streets for the summer and fall.
Hillside roads in Portsmouth and across Scioto County demand regular attention: steep grades, drainage and pavement wear combine to make routes like Scherer Hollow expensive to keep in shape, and closures for improvement work are typically measured in months rather than weeks.
The reopening restores direct access for the homes along the hollow and removes the detour that had been in place since August. The city announced the reopening on Wednesday, Nov. 11, according to the Guardian.
For residents along the hollow, the closure was more than an inconvenience. A single-route neighborhood feels every week of a road project: school buses reroute, deliveries take longer, and emergency access depends on the alternate streets staying clear. The August start at least put the heaviest work in the drier months, before winter weather could stall a hillside job.
City crews across the region use the same late-fall window to close out road seasons — finishing paving, clearing drainage and reopening routes before the first snow makes hillside work impractical. Scherer Hollow’s reopening lands right in that window.
Drivers returning to the road should still expect the normal cautions of a hillside route — tight curves and limited sight lines — and watch for any remaining work-zone signage while the project fully wraps up.
With Scherer Hollow back open, Portsmouth’s attention turns to the rest of its street program as winter approaches, when freeze-and-thaw cycles do their own damage to hillside pavement across the city.
Photo: Vasiliymeshko, CC BY