Olentangy Street will be down to one lane between Liberty and Lincoln Street from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, April 26 for the installation of the queue cutter. Olentangy Street will be maintained to two-way, one lane traffic.
The east/west traffic flow will be managed by flaggers and police officers.
A queue cutter is a traffic signal that prevents vehicles from being stopped across railroad tracks and is activated for eastbound traffic by a downstream queue detection. The queue cutter is expected to be activated in mid-May.
The Powell Police Department issued nearly 300 warnings for motorists stopping on the Olentangy Street railroad crossing in December, 2014. City officials and the Ohio Railroad Commission have since taken steps to implement safety measures at the highly-traveled crossing.
The Ohio Railroad Commission is funding the construction of the queue cutter. The City built a permanent right-in, right-out concrete island at Depot Street in 2015. The island prohibits left turns onto Depot Street from Olentangy Street, one of the main causes of vehicles stopping on the tracks.