For the first time in more than 20 years, Jeff Hill on East Union Street will be a two-way street.
Jeff Hill will become a two-way street once the Jefferson Hall renovation project is completed, Andy Stone, city engineer and director of Public Works, said.
The scheduled completion for the Culinary Services portion of Jefferson Hall is December 2016, and the scheduled completion for the Housing and Residence Life portion is August 2017, Joe Lalley, senior associate vice president of Information Technologies and Administrative Services, said.
“Basically the renovation project is completed to the extent that they can open up the sidewalk and street in front of Jeff Hill,” Stone said. “(The two-way street) could (open) as early as December, it could be as late as next summer.”
The top of Jeff Hill will remain a three-way stop, Stone said.
“Ohio University requested that the bottom of Stewart Street to the bottom of the hill be made two-ways mainly because of service vehicles needing to access drives there at the bottom of Jeff Hill when they exit, wanting to turn back toward Stewart Street rather than go up the hill because in a lot of cases these are large trucks,” Stone said.
The service vehicles, Stone said, have a hard time driving up the hill.
“When we looked at it, we thought it’s really not appropriate just to have one half of one block of all of Union Street be one-way and so we thought we’d just go ahead and make Union Street two-way for the hill section as well,” Stone said.
Double yellow paint lines were added to Jeff Hill last week by the city's paint machine, Stone said.
“We probably only have a few more weeks before we need to get it all cleaned up and winterized … so we went ahead and did the upper portion now,” Stone said.
Kelsey O’Donnell, a senior studying journalism, said having Jeff Hill as a two-way street will be “very convenient” because her parking spot is at the end of Mill Street.
“I can come up (Jeff Hill) right now and get to my apartment, but when I’m leaving to take my car after I go grocery shopping it might be a little more convenient now that I can go down it,” O’Donnell said.
Aubrey Megown, a sophomore studying management information systems, said having Jeff Hill become a two-way street could cause some noise problems for students living in Jeff Hall when it reopens.
“I feel like there’s a lot of work going on there already, so I feel like they are going to be a little overwhelmed, especially the people who live there,” Megown said.
The last time Jeff Hill was a two-way street was in the early 1990s.
“I think at the time there were a couple other modes of navigation to get to and from the low portion of the campus and get to the uptown area,” Stone said.
The street was also brick at the time, which made it “pretty slick for downhill traffic” there when it rained or snowed, Stone said.
“They made a decision at the time for safety to make it one-way uphill,” Stone said.
The road was closed after a water-line break, but it was rehabilitated in 2009 and reopened as one-way uphill, Stone said.
“We feel (having Jeff Hill as a two-way street) will improve circulation to the uptown area,” Stone said.
