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File #: 2204-2015    Version: 1
Type: Ordinance Status: Passed
File created: 9/2/2015 In control: Recreation & Parks Committee
On agenda: 10/19/2015 Final action: 10/21/2015
Title: To authorize and direct the Director of Recreation and Parks to enter into contract with Stantec Consulting Services for the Olentangy Trail at Worthington Hills Extension Project; to authorize the City Auditor to transfer $83,800.00 within the Recreation and Parks Voted Bond Fund; to authorize the expenditure of $76,476.00 with a contingency of $3,524.00 for a total of $80,000.00 from the Recreation and Parks Voted Bond Fund; to amend the 2015 Capital Improvement Budget; and to declare an emergency. ($80,000.00)
Explanation

Background:
This ordinance authorizes the Director of the Recreation and Parks Department to enter into contract with Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. for the extension of the Olentangy Trail at Worthington Hills. This extension project will involve investigation of alignments, logical connection points, analysis of existing vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian patterns, improvement alternatives and best practices for safely integrating trail users into a busy commercial area fronted by a high traffic roadway. Involvement with the local constituency of residents and business owners will be conducted early on, and continue throughout the project.

The project is intended to be a two stage contract, with the first stage to include Preliminary Engineering. Pending successful completion of the Preliminary Engineering phase, a contract modification will be developed for Stage 2, with the scope of design development and final plan submittals.

In September of 2015, the trail will be closed for up to18 months during ODOT’s reconstruction of the I-270/SR 315 interchange project. As part of this reconstruction, a ‘net benefit’ has been established by ODOT for the impacts of the project to trail use. The net benefit will be assisting the City of Columbus with the extension of the trail from the park to directly tie in to the Olentangy Valley Shopping Center, Clubview Boulevard, Highview Boulevard and residents and employment centers north of the retail center. Over 2,000 residents and workers are close to the path entry, yet have no safe biking or walking access.

The Olentangy Trail is the busiest trail in Ohio. Recent trail counts show that the trail had over 1,000,000 uses in 2014. Several segments of the trail receive over 1,000 users per day. The trail currently ends at Worthington Hills Park, along the Olentangy River, 1 mile north of I-270. This northern end of the trail is a major access point, and is one of the heaviest destination points on th...

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