ROLLING ON THE RIVER
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Annual Riverview-Delhi Kiwanis Club’s Rolling on the River car show.
Your Community Press newspaper Serving Price Hill and Covedale Email: pricehillpress@communitypress.com Website: communitypress.co m We d n e s d a y, A u g u s t
Volume 84 Number 32 © 2011 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
3, 2011
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Viaduct work starts this week By Kurt Backscheider
kbackscheider@communitypress.com
Into the swing of things this fall
Area high school golfers are heading to the links this week as fall sports officially begins. See what your favorite team’s prospects are in this week’s sports section. You can find stories on many area golf teams at cincinnati.com/blogs/ presspreps. – SEE STORY, A6
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West Siders who use the Waldvogel Viaduct and Sixth Street Expressway to get downtown will see construction getting started this week. Crews have moved in equipment and materials to begin the first phase of the Waldvogel Viaduct replacement project. Richard Szekeresh, principal structural engineer for the city of Cincinnati, said Great Lakes Construction Co. was awarded the $54.9 million project and is setting up a staging area on the old Queen City Barrel property. He said the first phase of the two-year project involves the demolition of some buildings on Neave Street, renovation of a retaining wall at Wilder and Glenway avenues and construction of a temporary road in the area where River Road meets State Avenue. “People need to know that will only be a temporary asphalt road,” Szekeresh said. “It will allow traffic from River Road to be maintained during the entire project.” The 53-year-old Waldvogel Viaduct, which carries 28,000 vehicles a day as one of the main links between the West Side and downtown, is being replaced. The conditions on the viaduct make it one of the worst bridges in Southwest Ohio. Szekeresh said the existing viaduct, with its bridge ramps from Elberon and Warsaw avenues, will be redesigned to meet modern standards. The lanes on the viaduct and ramps, as well as the Sixth Street Expressway, will be widened, and the piers now supporting the bridge will be replaced with new support structures, he said. “It’s not going to look anything like it does now,” he said. “We’re going to new, standardlength bridges that provide more open space underneath.” Szekeresh, who is the city’s project manager for the replacement project, said the Ohio Department of Transportation is managing the project. He said they’ve worked hard to coordinate
THANKS TO RICHARD SZEKERESH
This model shows what the Waldvogel Viaduct and part of the Sixth Street Expressway will look like when completed. River Road runs along the right side of the model, and goes underneath the bridge ramp from Elberon Avenue.
CARRIE COCHRAN/STAFF
Construction to replace the deteriorating Waldvogel Viaduct and improve the Sixth Street Expressway at the base of Price Hill is scheduled to begin in early August. The existing viaduct will remain open to traffic for the first year of the two-year, $54.9 million project. construction, and although some traffic inconveniences are inevitable, traffic will be maintained throughout the entire project in one lane in each direction along River Road and the ramp from Elberon. He said the existing viaduct will stay open the way it is for the entire first year of the project, and the 16-ton weight limit on the bridge will remain in effect. When all the heavy construction work is finished, new concrete railings and new lighting will be added to complete the aesthetics of the viaduct. Szekeresh said the Waldvogel project is a major construction project, but it will be worth it in the end. The work is scheduled to wrap by
“It’s not going to look anything like it does now. We’re going to new, standard-length bridges that provide more open space underneath.”
Richard Szekeresh Principal structural engineer for Cincinnati
Oct. 31, 2014. “It’s a welcome improvement,” he said. “This project has been overdue for a long time. The community is looking forward to its completion.” For more about your community, visit www.cincinnati.com/pricehill.
West-Side orchestra celebrating 15 years By Kurt Backscheider
More concerts
kbackscheider@communitypress.com
Fred Erdmann said playing an instrument is hard work, but it’s completely worth it. “It’s pure pleasure,” the Delhi Township resident said. “It’s a labor of love.” He said after playing the violin for two to three hours during a concert, holding his arms up for most of that time, it feels good to get home and unwind. “It feels so good to relax,” he said. Erdmann and his fellow musicians in the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra are getting their muscles and instruments in tune for the group’s upcoming concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9, on their home stage at Seton Performance Hall, 3901 Glenway Ave. Titled “Back By Popular Demand,” the orchestra will celebrate 15 years of making music.
PROVIDED
Dave Allen, center, conductor of the Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra, leads the orchestra as it rehearses inside Seton High School’s Performance Hall. The orchestra will celebrate 15 years of making music when it kicks off its 2011 summer concert season Tuesday, Aug. 9. The show also kicks off the group’s 2011 summer concert series.
They will perform some of their
See CELEBRATING on page A2
Cincinnati Metropolitan Orchestra Summer Concert Series: • Aug. 9 – Seton High School 7:30 p.m. • Aug. 23 – President's Park Edgewood, Ky., 7 p.m. • Sept. 1 Lawrenceburg Concert, 7 p.m. • Sept. 13 – Tower Park Fort Thomas, Ky., 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday Oct. 22-23 “Easy to Love” Broadway Concert featuring Tom Hafner and Bob Dusold. (Tickets Z$20.) • In summer of 2012 the CMO is going on a performance tour to Williamsburg, Va. Proceeds from this concert will go towards the upcoming tour. Those interested in joining the orchestra on their 2012 tour can get information at this concert. • Sunday, Dec. 4 , 3 p.m. – Holiday concert • Sunday, March 25, 2012 – 3 p.m. Classical concert