The county’s first roundabout was recently constructed about a half-mile west of the Honda/LG Energy Solution Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant in Jefferson Township.
Ryan Carter | R-H photos
The county’s first roundabout was recently constructed about a half-mile west of the Honda/LG Energy Solution Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant in Jefferson Township.
The county’s first roundabout was recently constructed about a half-mile west of the Honda/LG Energy Solution Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant in Jefferson Township.
A view of the Honda plant from near the new roundabout on Bluegrass Boulevard.
JEFFERSON TWP. — Fayette County’s first roundabout is now in place as a connector from Bluegrass Boulevard to the Honda/LG Energy Solution Electric Vehicle (EV) battery plant that’s under construction.
The roundabout, which is located about a half-mile west of the plant, will be utilized as the plant’s main entrance, according to Fayette County Engineer Steve Luebbe.
“We got the contract back in the spring and construction on the roundabout began in early summer,” Luebbe said. “We had a good contractor, a good engineering team with respect to putting the plans together, and also with our inspection admin out here. Everything went as smoothly as we could have hoped and the project was done on time.”
The roundabout project was part of roadwork on the second section of Bluegrass Boulevard, which included bridge, water and sewer work. Overall, the final cost of the project came in a little under budget — just shy of $8 million.
Work on the first section of Bluegrass — the road in front of McKesson and the improvements along State Route 435 — cost around $4.5 million.
The plan is for Bluegrass Boulevard to extend through the more than 1,500-acre mega-site, connecting with State Route 41 to the north and State Route 435 to the south. Bluegrass will offer access between 435 to 41, parallel to Interstate 71. The mega-site is the state’s “largest certified job-ready site.”
“We looked at doing a conventional intersection here, but roundabouts are better for capacity, they work at a better level of service and they’re safer,” Luebbe said. “There’s going to be literally tens of thousands of vehicles a day on this road once it connects all the way to 41. You project growth out here, but you don’t know exactly how it’s going to grow. Some of the denser development scenarios say we could have up to 50,000 cars a day on this road. We’re trying to be forward-thinking and put in the infrastructure that can handle it.”
According to Luebbe, the State of Ohio plans to construct another roundabout at the 435 and Bluegrass Boulevard intersection. This project is expected to be complete by the fall.
Honda and LGES have committed to invest $3.5 billion in the new joint venture (JV) facility, with their overall investment projected to reach $4.4 billion. The plant — which is being constructed just west of Ohio 729 and south of I-71 in Jefferson Township — is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024, with plans to create 2,200 jobs. The plant aims for approximately 40 giggawat-hours, or “GWh” of annual production capacity.
The location of the joint venture between Honda and LGES was announced Oct. 11 and was formally established on Jan. 12. The plant aims to start mass production of pouch-type lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025, to be provided exclusively to Honda auto plants to produce EVs to be sold in North America.
In order to accommodate the Honda plant, Fayette County and its partners have about $130 million of worth of infrastructure work going on right now, according to Luebbe.
This includes a $60 million water treatment plant project, $25 million in wastewater improvements, the $30 million project for a water line up I-71, a $6 million elevated storage tank project, and $8 million for a pump station and tanks on I-71 at exit 45.
The county is building a raw water transmission main to tap into the City of Wilmington’s line where it crosses I-71. Fayette County and the City of Wilmington reached an agreement to utilize the water from Caesar Creek Lake.
Luebbe said the county is working with the plant to try to provide all their utilities by the fall.
“This is a massive project and it’s going to impact not just Fayette County, but the region as well as the state,” he said.
