COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — More changes are coming to Hamilton Road on the city’s Northeast Side near New Albany.
With a project completed recently to rebuild Hamilton Road from Morse Road north to State Route 161 — which led to such retail developments as a Target, Sheetz and BJ’s Wholesale Club — the next phase will be to push the widening farther north.
Funds were approved Monday by Columbus City Council to map out expanding Hamilton Road to Central College Road. The project would include adding lanes as well as sidewalks, shared-used paths, sewers, lighting, trees and signals. The city is contracting with American Structurepoint, which will receive $1.4 million on top of the $500,000 it had gotten earlier.
“I’m excited that, for all of these projects, we’ve added in shared use paths, we’ve added in sidewalks, ADA ramps, etc., to again, ensure that our folks are safe no matter how they’re traveling our city streets and sidewalks,” Councilmember Lourdres Barroso de Pedilla said.
Other changes include modifying the eastern interchange ramps at State Route 161 and adding pedestrian and bicycle facilities along the intersection with East Dublin-Granville Road. Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2025 and finish in late 2026.
In 2016, a trio of developers and the city began plans for the Hamilton Quarter district, the redevelopment of 320 acres at the Hamilton Road exit of State Route 161. When announced, the development was said to include 1 million square feet of retail space, 700,000 square feet of office space, 800 apartments and 130 senior living units.
The area is part of the expansion in and around New Albany, which lies just to the east. The eastern half of New Albany, in Licking County, has seen many businesses come into it in recent years, including Google, Amazon, Facebook parent company Meta and Intel, which is constructing a computer chip manufacturing center there. Although that project is on course, a delay was announced on Thursday.