When the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) was looking to update a 25-mile stretch of U.S. 33 in southeastern Ohio, the project team knew the size would present some challenges.
ODOT structured the procurement in stages rather than placing the entire program under one solicitation. Therefore, in an effort to draw more bidders for the project, it divided the expansion into four contracts covering two separate corridors, with a gap between them.
“The project was divided into four smaller contracts with the hopes of getting more competition involved,” said Ashley Rittenhouse, Public Information Officer for ODOT District 10. “There were six different bidders involved in the first contract let.”
The competitive strategy produced an unexpected result.
“In the end, a single contractor ended up being the low bidder on all four projects,” Rittenhouse said.
| Your local Manitou dealer |
|---|
| Star Equipment LTD |
Kokosing Construction Company Inc. ultimately submitted the low bid on all four and was awarded the entire project, allowing ODOT to coordinate 25 miles of work with different traffic levels, intersection designs, and schedules.
Now, Kokosing is converting the last two-lane sections of U.S. 33 between Columbus, Ohio, and the Ohio River into a four-lane divided highway. The program calls for approximately 7 million cubic yards of excavation, nine bridges, a large box culvert, and extensive work beside active traffic. ODOT expects the new alignments to open by the end of 2027, followed by final resurfacing, grading, and related work through fall 2028.
U.S. 33 provides a direct connection between central Ohio and Interstate 77 near Ravenswood, West Virginia. Completing the divided highway will remove the route’s final two-lane gaps and add capacity on a corridor carrying a growing share of commercial traffic.
ODOT preserved the option to widen the highway long before construction funding became available.
| Your local Leica Geosystems Inc dealer |
|---|
| Laser Specialist inc |
“More than 20 years ago, ODOT purchased the right of way necessary to expand U.S. 33 to four lanes,” Rittenhouse said. “The Connect4Ohio Program enabled us to move forward with the project.”
Traffic volumes range from 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles per day along the Athens-to-Darwin section and from 2,500 to 5,000 along the Five Points-to-Ravenswood section, depending on location.
“Trucks make up a large portion of the traffic on these sections, and studies indicate that number will continue to increase,” Rittenhouse said. “The expansion eliminates the scenario of a passenger car passing a large truck on a two-lane road and risking getting into a head-on crash.”
Cary Betzing, ODOT District 10 Construction Engineer, noted that the route has recorded one of Ohio’s largest increases in truck traffic since the Super 2 passing lanes were added.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Mid-America |
| SITECH Central LLC |
| SITECH Midway |
The 10.78-mile Athens-to-Darwin section will gain grade-separated interchanges at Pleasant Hill Road, Pleasanton Road, Rainbow Lake Road, and State Route 681. The 14.19-mile section from State Route 7 at Five Points to Ravenswood will retain at-grade intersections, with left-turn lanes and other improvements.
ODOT matched those designs to the demands on each section rather than apply the same interchange plan across the full 25 miles.
“The traffic volumes between Athens and Darwin are currently twice as high as the Five-Points-to-Ravenswood section,” said Daniel McDonald, Area Engineer for ODOT District 10. “The overall cost of the project is also always a consideration.”
Cost was only one part of that calculation.
| Your local Gehl Co dealer |
|---|
| Star Equipment LTD |
“The volume of the side roads is also very low,” Betzing said. “Combined with the cost, grade-separated interchanges on this section were not feasible.”
The result is a higher-volume northern corridor organized around four interchanges and a southern corridor that adds passing capacity and separates opposing U.S. 33 traffic without building interchanges at low-volume crossroads.
Connect4Ohio is providing most of the program’s funding. ODOT’s procurement also had to account for two separate corridors and a multi-year construction program.
The two corridors have a gap between them. Originally, ODOT anticipated that even if one company won both contracts in the first corridor, the later packages could draw another strong group of bidders. The market produced a different result.
| Your local Topcon Positioning Systems Inc dealer |
|---|
| Star Equipment LTD |
“There would obviously have been additional challenges for ODOT if each project had been awarded to a different contractor, each having their own set of staff,” McDonald said. “Coordination between projects becomes simpler when they are all managed by the same team.”
Kokosing’s presence on all four contracts reduces the number of separate staffs ODOT must coordinate. It also gives the contractor a program-wide view of labor, equipment, haul routes, traffic control, and sequencing. Problems at a contract line can be addressed by one field organization rather than negotiated between competing prime contractors.
Kokosing began work in Meigs County in June 2025. That corridor requires approximately 3 million cubic yards of excavation to build 14 miles of new westbound roadway, reconstruct eight intersections, install a drilled-shaft retaining wall, and construct three mainline bridges.
Work started in Athens County in fall 2025. Crews there are excavating approximately 4 million cubic yards for 10 miles of new eastbound roadway, four reconstructed intersections, three mainline bridges, and three overpasses. The existing U.S. 33 pavement will become the opposite half of the divided highway after resurfacing and tie-in work.
| Your local Takeuchi Mfg Ltd dealer |
|---|
| Kirby-Smith Machinery |
| Star Equipment LTD |
That sequencing keeps the existing route in service through most of construction, but it also places haul movements, bridge erection, and blasting close to active traffic.
The shared final completion date does not leave both corridors under identical production pressure.
“The Meigs corridor is slightly ahead of schedule,” McDonald said. “It has the same overall completion date as the Athens corridor but has more float in the schedule.”
Athens crews had already reached a major earthwork milestone when ODOT provided its September 2026 update.
| Your local Magni dealer |
|---|
| Kirby-Smith Machinery |
“The Athens corridor is still on schedule to complete by fall 2028,” said Blake Brown, Area Engineer for ODOT District 10. “The contractor has excavated and placed over 1.5 million cubic yards of embankment between these two projects and is also in differing stages of construction on four separate bridges.”
ODOT tentatively expected the Pleasanton Road interchange bridge to open later in fall 2026. Kokosing’s published schedule calls for traffic on both new alignments by the end of 2027, leaving the following construction season for resurfacing, grading, and closeout work.
ODOT’s total of 10 structures includes three bridges in the Meigs corridor, six bridges in Athens, and a 20-foot-wide by 8-foot-high box culvert carrying a U.S. 33 entrance ramp over a tributary of Shade Creek near State Route 681.
“The lack of full interchanges limits the number of bridges required on the Meigs corridor,” McDonald said. “All the foundation work for those three bridges has been completed, and beams have been set on two of the structures.”
| Your local Gomaco dealer |
|---|
| Fabick CAT/MO |
| Road Machinery and Supplies Company |
Athens County’s six bridges include overpasses at Pleasant Hill Road, Pleasanton Road, and Rainbow Lake Road; two eastbound U.S. 33 crossings at Pratts Fork Creek and a tributary; and a crossing over the West Branch of the Shade River and County Road 40, also known as Burlingham Road.
Brown pointed to the Pratts Fork Creek bridge in Athens County as one of the most important aspects of the project.
“The eastbound U.S. 33 over Pratts Fork Creek structure is a five-span prestressed concrete I-beam structure that is over 700 feet long and approximately 80 feet high,” Brown said. “It is also being constructed on skewed piers as an environmental commitment to avoid the creek.”
Across both corridors, bridge and earthwork operations must advance while U.S. 33 and its side roads continue serving motorists, businesses, and residents.
| Your local Iowa Mold Tooling Co Inc dealer |
|---|
| Star Equipment LTD |
“The maintenance of traffic on U.S. 33 consists of a combination of lane closures with barrels, flaggers, and temporary traffic signals,” Rittenhouse said. “There are rolling roadblocks in place when blasting is occurring. Side roads are closed when necessary.”
Side-road access required a separate strategy.
“Anything more than very short-term side-road closures was coordinated during the design phase with local officials,” Betzing said. “Building the interchanges with a specific schedule allows local businesses and residents to maintain access as much as possible.”
ODOT encountered few new right of way issues because it acquired the needed property more than 20 years ago. With property acquisition largely settled, community concerns center on work underway beside homes and local roads.
| Your local Komatsu America Corp dealer |
|---|
| Road Machinery and Supplies Company |
“Property owners within the blasting zone have been communicated with directly, and there have also been public pre-blast meetings held,” Rittenhouse said. “Road closures and other traffic impacts have been and will continue to be communicated through OHGO.com, ODOT District 10’s social media channels, email lists, and the traffic advisories section on ODOT’s website.”
ODOT uses regular progress meetings to track quality, safety, schedule, and coordination with Kokosing. The contracting structure also changed how District 10 staffed construction management.
“Due to the unprecedented surge these projects have added to the District 10 construction program, two consultant contracts have been issued to manage two of the four projects,” McDonald said. “The other two projects are being managed by internal ODOT staff members.”
That arrangement gives each contract dedicated oversight while the common contractor and recurring meetings connect decisions across the program. ODOT will continue its evaluation after construction by monitoring traffic counts and crash data.
| Your local Link Belt dealer |
|---|
| Kirby-Smith Machinery |
“Traffic will also move more efficiently on four lanes versus two,” Rittenhouse said. “There is an expectation that traffic volumes will grow after the project is complete, as the multilane highway and higher speed limits will be attractive to drivers.”
- Owner: Ohio Department of Transportation
- Contractor: Kokosing Construction Company Inc., Westerville, Ohio
- Subcontractors, Suppliers, and Consultants: 360 Construction Company Inc., A & A Safety Inc., All Contractors Supply LLC, American Roadway Logistics Inc., Beagle Hill Services LLC, Benchmark Biodiesel Inc., BLD Services LLC, Boca Construction Inc., Coyle Construction Services dba Coyle SWPPP Professionals, Cuyahoga Supply & Tool Inc., DHDC Engineering Consulting Services Inc., DOT Diamond Core Drilling Inc., Dynamic Surface Applications Ltd., Flatrock LLC, Griffin Pavement Striping LLC, GRL Engineers Inc., Heavy Highway Construction Company LLC, Hilltop Energy Inc., Insituform Technologies Inc., Keller North America Inc., Key Cable & Supply Co. Inc., Lionel Construction Company, Marlo Construction Solutions LLC, Mid Atlantic Maintenance LLC, Nick Kostecki Excavating Inc., PDK Construction Inc., Penn Line Service Inc., Performance Hydroblasting Inc., Professional Service Industries, Statewide Concrete Pumping Inc., T.C. Randal Construction LLC, The Shelly Company, Wampum Hardware
