5 ways Hamilton is working to ease downtown traffic headaches

Here are five ways officials in Hamilton have been working to improve cross-town traffic in their city:

» MOST RECENT EFFORT: This Hamilton traffic headache has a major fix coming

1. Main Street-Millville and Eaton avenues: In June, officials expect to break ground on straightening-out of the area where Main Street meets Millville and Eaton avenues. Those intersections are now close to each other — so close they interfere with each other, and the streets meet with Main Street at severe angles. The project, to cost $3 million to $3.2 million, will have each street square off with Main at 90-degree angles. The project should take 18 months of construction, and when finished, should expedite vehicles along their way on the crowded High-Main corridor.

2.Linking Ohio 4 with Miami Hamilton. South Hamilton Crossing, which will link Ohio 4 at Grand Boulevard with Miami University's Hamilton Campus, as well as the West Side, is expected to be finished in August, well ahead of the contractual completion date. This should help crowding on the High/Main corridor by providing a second east-west route that will not face stoppages because of trains. More than 100 years in discussions, South Hamilton Crossing will go above the CSX, while High Street goes below it.

3.Another Main Street untangle. Not far west of the Main-Millville-Eaton intersection, another complicated area — where Main meets Cereal and Haldimand avenues, as well as McKinley and Western avenues — may begin construction in 2020.

4. Main-Martin Luther King improvement. The city this year finished work on another intersection that has slowed traffic along the High-Main corridor, especially during rush hours. The High Street intersection with Martin Luther King Boulevard has improved turn lanes and makes it easier for trucks to turn within the intersection. No more work is needed at this intersection.

5. Changing traffic signals. Also in 2017, the city tweaked traffic signals along High and Main Streets to give drivers along the route longer green lights.