Eastgate tunnel has glaring problem?

State transportation officials are clarifying a report that a — literally - glaring problem has delayed the opening of a road tunnel designed to ease traffic in the Eastgate area.

Plans were to by the end of last year open the tunnel built to allow northbound Interstate 275 traffic headed east on state Route 32 to bypass some traffic and traffic signals and emerge beyond Eastgate Boulevard.

“The reason that it didn’t open is because when they were preparing to open it, the lighting inside was an issue because the sunrise and the sunset into it created a glare issue in there and they didn’t really have enough time to complete all of the lighting and testing that they needed to do,” Union Township Administrator Ken Geis told the township board of trustees at a recent meeting.

“Rather than rush that project, they decided to postpone that and to go through the season and make sure they can get that right when they open that.”

Elizabeth Lyons, public information specialist with the Ohio Department of Transportation’s district office in Lebanon, said there is no problem with the tunnel lights themselves.

“The lights are not hooked up and without them there is an issue with sun glare as you go through,” Lyons said.

“We won’t open it until the lights are hooked up and functioning.

“We have most of our work done, we just need Duke (Energy) to hook up the power,” Lyons said.

“Regardless, it won’t open until the job is done, around Sept. 1.”

Geis expects people to be watching closely.

“Probably one of the most asked questions is when is the tunnel going to open,” Geis said.

Ohio and Clermont County are spending more than $80 million on separate road construction and improvements in the Eastgate area.

That includes work at the interchange of I-275 and state Route 32, which state transportation officials say should finish in about six months.

“We’re getting back into the season where the road improvements are going to begin to start again,” Geis said, reporting when the following projects should finish:

•Extending Ivy Pointe Boulevard from its intersection with Ferguson Drive a quarter mile to Aicholtz Road should finish this year.

•Constructing a roundabout at the intersection of Clepper Lane and Eastgate South Drive by Jungle Jim’s International Market at 4450 Eastgate South Drive also should finish this year.

“They’re trying to make sure that they get the timing right so that they don’t bump into the Christmas and the Thanksgiving season on that,” Geis said

•Improving and reconnecting Aicholtz Road from Eastgate Boulevard to Mt. Carmel Tobasco Road should finish at the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017.

Want to know more about what is happening in Union Township? Follow me on Twitter @jeannehouck.