(Road Work – Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)

MARIETTA — Members of the public are invited to attend a meeting about the Logistics Lane project along Ohio 7 in Washington County.

The Ohio Department of Transportation District 10 will host the open house-style meeting from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the gym at the Marietta Armory, 241 Front St.

Construction on the project is expected to begin in 2027 from Veto Road to the north end of Blue Knob Road between Belpre and Marietta. A grant of nearly $8.8 million from the Nationally Significant Highway Projects and Multimodal Transportation Program was announced in January.

The improvements are aimed at increasing safety and capacity in the area, according to a statement from ODOT. It cites a history of accidents at the Veto/Blue Knob Road and Ohio/Blue Knob Road intersections and studies indicating that there would be excessive delays at the existing intersections if future development in the area continues without changes.

The project design will also take into account a history of flooding in the area with the aim of reducing the impact of high water, the statement said.

In addition, infrastructure is to be built to facilitate future testing and deployment of “intelligent corridor mobility solutions”, it is said. The Central Ohio River Information System web-based application, which displays information about individual ports, will be expanded.

There will be no formal presentation at Tuesday’s meeting, but numerous alternatives will be displayed, the statement said.

The preferred alternative includes building a fully restricted U-crossing at Veto Road and Gravel Bank Road. An interchange will be built north of Blue Knob Road. Southern Blue Knob Road would remain open, and Gravel Bank and Blue Knob Roads would be improved.

All alternatives can be viewed online at https://tinyurl.com/5n7a5puk.

In addition to allowing traffic to move more efficiently, restricted-pass intersections can reduce the total number of conflict points by up to 50 percent, limiting the opportunities for collisions and typically the severity of such collisions, the release said.

Comments can be submitted via the project website, by email, phone or mail by December 19 to Matthew First, PE, 338 Muskingum Drive, Marietta, OH 45750; 740-568-3945 and [email protected].

Those unable to access the meeting can obtain additional information by contacting First.