TIMELINE: Traffic studies around Liberty Center
2005/2006: Original Liberty Interchange IMS (interchange modification study) completed. Calls for current free flow interchange between Interstate 75 and Ohio 129 and Liberty Way. Also requires widening of Liberty Way, then referred to as Hamilton-Mason Road, from two lanes to four lanes from Cincinnati-Dayton Road to Butler-Warren Road. Both the Cin-Day and Butler-Warren intersections were widened to accommodate Hamilton-Mason Road widening.
2008: Liberty Center developer Steiner + Associates hires a traffic engineering firm to perform a traffic impact study, one that was never fully completed and approved before the developer delayed development due to the recession. That study allowed BCEO to set access points along the Hamilton-Mason corridor prior to its widening in 2010.
2012: Steiner + Associates hires another traffic engineering firm to perform an updated traffic impact study, one that was completed and approved. Recommendations included intersection improvements to Tylers Place Boulevard and new Taylor Street, as well as I-75 ramp improvements, all recently completed.
Early 2014: Update to Liberty Interchange IMS was completed and approved to verify recommended improvements from traffic impact study.
Spring 2016: Butler County Transportation Improvement District expected to complete third “more robust” study.
Advertisements for Liberty Center say “The Tradition Begins” Oct. 22 when the shopping center opens.
So does the traffic.
The $350 million mega retail project is situated along the north side of Liberty Way, which already sees an average of 15,000 vehicles per day, according to the Butler County Engineer's Office.
That number is projected to more than double to 40,000 vehicles during the center’s first phase, according to the BCEO.
That projected 166-percent increase is why numerous road improvements have been made in preparation for the new shopping venue and more are being planned as additional development comes to the area, according to the engineer’s office.
Traffic studies show that road improvements recently made along Liberty Way and at the Interstate 75 exit and entrance ramps should handle the additional traffic generated by Liberty Center, according to Butler County Engineer Greg Wilkens.
“As the area continues to grow, we’re looking at more modifications to the I-75 interchange at Liberty Way and Route 129 as well as to surrounding roads,” Wilkens told the Journal-News. “In the meantime, we believe that local motorists who are not specifically traveling to Liberty Center will use alternate routes, which will help ease traffic in the vicinity of the new shopping venue.”
Traffic study data indicates approximately 1,250 new trips will be generated each weekday as motorists enter the shopping center during the times of the highest traffic volume and 1,700 such on Saturday during the center’s highest traffic volume period.
Increases in traffic along the road are of little concern to Judi Ervin, who moved to a home in the 7200 block of Liberty Way nearly 50 years ago when the only homes on her side of the road were hers and the ones immediately to the left and right of her home.
As the decades passed, she’s watched a vast swath of farmland turn to homes, then some of those homes transform into small businesses, then the coming of Liberty Center, but never felt any concern because of or animosity toward the growth.
“If I was unhappy with it then I would have moved somewhere else, but I’ve been happy here,” she said. “
I know the traffic is just going to be more, so there’s nothing to get out of shape about.”
Ervin said it helps that traffic improvements to Liberty Way, including a turning lane down the center of the roadway, have allowed vehicles to pause before turning into businesses and homes without impeding traffic.
Building Liberty Center just down the road from her will mean increased traffic, but Ervin said she believes that could be outweighed by growth from the project.
“We have the shopping center at Dayton and the one in Kenwood, so we’re halfway between those,” she said. “It may be a very good place for it.”
The opening of Liberty Center this coming Thursday was preceded by two sets of improvements to the road, both the result of two separate traffic studies, one in 2007 and the other in 2012.
Although the economy delayed construction of Liberty Center, Hamilton Mason Road ended up widened and renamed Liberty Way and the Liberty Interchange was added at I-75 following the first study, according to BCEO spokesman Chris Petrocy.
“When the economy improved and (Liberty Center developer) Steiner + Associates decided to move forward with construction of Liberty Center, a (second) new traffic study became necessary because traffic patterns in a growing area such as this change over the course of five years,” Petrocy said.
Also changing was an increase in the amount of area development, including growth of Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus and the addition of new retail venues, he said.
While Steiner + Associates footed the bill for the first two traffic studies, the Butler County Transportation Improvement District is conducting a third “more robust” study, one that’s expected to be completed in the spring.
The third study is “more regional in focus” given expected construction of The Christ Hospital Health Network’s medical center off Cox Road, full build-out of Liberty Center and additional development proposed for the area, Petrocy said.
“The second study was in a sense an update of the original study which focused mostly on Liberty Center,” Petrocy said. “However, at this point there are many new factors in the mix … so a new, broader study with a more regional focus was implemented.”
That new study is likely to address traffic backups from Ohio 129 and Interstate 75 onto Liberty Way, especially during rush hour traffic.
Separate traffic studies leading to multiple road improvement projects aren’t a matter of not getting it right the first time, but rather the result of changing times, according to Liberty Twp. Trustee Christine Matacic.
“Times change, traffic patterns change,” she said. “As they change and the way that studies are looked at, you have kind of a snapshot picture of what’s coming and so that’s what developers do, they say ‘This is the impact that traffic’s going to have from my development that I’m proposing.’”
Matacic said it’s far better to be proactive and take “a long-range approach” to the impact of businesses by working on it with developers and local governmental bodies rather than waiting for traffic to get out control.
A proactive measure being taken to prevent traffic logjams on at Liberty Center on opening day Thursday and each day through the Sunday of opening weekend is the stationing of between seven and 10 the Butler County Sheriff’s Office deputies there to direct motorists from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., according to Lt. Morgan Dallman
Those deputies’ salaries are being paid those days by Liberty Center itself, not taxpayers, said Dallman, commander of the sheriff’s office Liberty Twp. substation.
“We expect a large crowd and we want to make sure the normal volume of traffic on Liberty Way is not affected any more that it is to be,” he said. “Our main concern is that we keep traffic flowing on Liberty Way and entering Liberty Center and exiting, as well.”
Liberty Center also will have a large number of security personnel inside the center to funnel traffic in and out of parking lots, Dallman said.
Traffic flowed well on Dillard’s grand opening Oct. 8 with three deputies managing traffic from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., he said.
“We didn’t expect there to be a huge traffic problem on those days, but we worked with Liberty Center and we both agreed that it’s better safe than sorry,” Dallman said.
Shoppers at Dillard’s Liberty Center told the Journal-News that they haven’t experience significant traffic delays along Liberty Way and that any increase in traffic was unlikely to dissuade them from frequenting Liberty Center. Instead, they said they would likely use alternate routes, such as taking exiting at Ohio 129’s Cincinnati-Dayton Road exit, turning right onto Cincinnati-Dayton, then left onto Liberty Way.
Brenda Stradley, of Mason, said infrastructure improvements at Liberty Way have made it easier to get to the area and that she’s confident those improvements are enough to handle the predicted increase in traffic.
Even if traffic does reach the point that it significantly slows her time to Liberty Way, she still plans to frequent the shopping center.
“I’ll deal with the traffic (here) because if I have to go to Kenwood (Towne Center), I’ll have to deal with the traffic and that’s 15 minutes away,” Stradley said.
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