COLUMBUS — Drivers on the Far East Side will be living with construction barrels on East Broad Street for another year. The first phase of the city’s safety improvements to East Broad Street east of Interstate 270 is on schedule to be finished in October 2027, weather permitting, a city Department of Public Service spokesperson said.
The East Broad Street Phase 1 Safety Improvements project is upgrading the busy four-lane roadway from I-270 to Outerbelt Street. The finished project will add new through and turn lanes, a new sidewalk, a shared use path along the north side of the road, upgraded traffic signals with backplates and pedestrian pedestals to activate crosswalk “walk” symbols, a signal interconnect conduit, street lighting, street trees and stormwater drainage improvements.
City contractors have spent $10.6 million of a $23.6 million contract so far. Crews are currently milling and paving a section between the eastbound lanes and the newly resurfaced westbound lanes, work that has forced lane shifts for eastbound motorists. That paving is expected to finish before this winter, after which eastbound drivers will be shifted off the existing lanes onto the new south-side pavement.
On the eastbound side, barrels currently start just past the entrance to Mount Carmel East Hospital and run beyond Outerbelt Street, past the closed main entrance to the Raising Cane’s on the south side. Westbound barrels have at times started before Brice Road and ended before Mount Carmel East Hospital.
The city says the work is progressing on schedule. NewsForce247 will keep tracking the project as it moves toward its 2027 finish on Columbus’ Far East Side.