Inquirer: Moon Road rough spots are the final details to iron out

Usually when I hear complaints about the Moon Road widening project, they come from Mrs. Inquirer, whose job requires her to drive that stretch daily.

But last week I got a call from a Concerned Reader named Ralph who thinks the job is substandard. Ralph says what appears to be the final paving is uneven in places to the point of being "like a roller coaster."

"We're paying a lot of money for this, and I'm thankful for it," Ralph said. "But if this is the final product, someone needs to be held accountable."

I called the city's engineering department to see what's happening on one of the longest-running asphalt sagas on record. The good news is we're in the home stretch. The only bad news is for those who live in the neighborhoods off Moon Road. Many of the intersections are still uneven because

they're unfinished.

But that's just part of the process. You've got to put in the new road before you can make smooth transitions onto it. It wouldn't work the other way around.

John Hudgison, project engineer with the city, explained: "We're in the final stages. We're working on the side roads, to finish the curbs and gutters on the side streets. We're tying up the loose ends."

Hudgison said the new street signage is in and temporary striping is down. The more permanent thermo-plastic striping will be installed in the next few weeks.

"We try to let the asphalt cure before we go down with the new striping," Hudgison said.

After that, the city will get new traffic signals that meet Department of Transportation specs and install them. But that won't be until after the first of the year.

"The intent was to get the main road open before Thanksgiving, and we did," Hudgison said. "And then to start working on the side streets, so we're not messing with a lot of commuter traffic. The people traveling on Moon Road shouldn't have much trouble."

If it seems like the project is taking a long time, that's because it has. Veteran Readers will recall that the project has been discussed since the early 1990s.

For a while, the state DOT wanted to expand the two-lane road to four or five lanes, but the city balked at that. Even with the current three-lane configuration, the project took pretty good chunks out of some yards. In fact, I remember one family coming before Columbus Council and asking the city to buy out their house, because they said it was going to lose so much of its value. (Council said no.)

Finally, in late 2013, the $5 million project got formally underway, and now, as 2016 looms on the horizon, it's wrapping up.

Now, if we can get Whittlesey and Veterans wrapped up, we can turn to griping about the Spiderweb project on Buena Vista Road.

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published November 29, 2015 at 10:11 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Moon Road rough spots are the final details to iron out ."