Fleming provides intersection closing info

VW independent news

Van Wert Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming released some information on the upcoming closure of the Washington Street/Fox Road/Hospital Drive intersection.

Fleming said the intersection is scheduled to close at 7 a.m. Wednesday, September 7 (the Wednesday after Labor Day). Like the Washington/Ervin Road intersection before it, the intersection will remain closed 40 days so that sanitary sewers and storm pipes can be installed. The road will also be lowered approximately 3 feet at the center of the intersection. Because of the depth of the excavation, existing traffic signals will also be removed on September 7.

According to Fleming, city officials, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and the contractor working on the street have been working with the Van Wert Police Department, the Van Wert Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and Van Wert County Sheriff’s Office to develop a traffic plan for the area.

As part of that plan, motorists are prohibited from cutting through either the Van Wert Medical Center of Van Wert County Hospital parking lots. Any driver that drives up to the intersection must then turn around and use another route. The safety-service director said the ban on cutting through the above parking lots will be strictly enforced.

Because the intersection is a major route to the hospital and Medical Center, city officials have been working with local EMS responders to come up with alternate routes to transport patients to those facilities. In addition, parents and students need to have an alternate route to school, beginning September 7.

Fleming asks that motorists have patience and cooperate with the closure.