Within the next two weeks, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) District 1 is expected to open the first Restricted Crossing U-Turn (RCUT) in northwest Ohio on U.S. 30 in Allen County.

When Thayer Road at U.S 30 is reopened to traffic, motorists will find that direct access across U.S. 30 is no longer available. The RCUT will divert the Thayer Road traffic downstream on U.S. 30 where they can make a legal U-turn in a designated lane to access the opposite side of the highway.

“The RCUT design is expected to improve the flow of traffic on Thayer Road while also making the intersection safer,” said ODOT District 1 Deputy Director, Chris Hughes. “By constructing an RCUT here, the conflict points have been reduced from 32 to 14. Based on statistics from similar intersections where RCUTs have been constructed, we anticipate a 70% drop in fatal accidents, and a 40% drop in serious injuries,” he said.

In the past five years, thirteen crashes have occurred at Thayer Road. Of those, two were fatal and five resulted in serious injury.

The project was funded through Ohio’s Road Safety Program which dedicates about $158 million for engineering improvements at high-crash locations every year. Because of Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s commitment to highway safety, ODOT now has the third largest road safety program in the country.

“One reason the RCUT will be safer is that it will spread out the decisions drivers make at the intersection,” said OSHP Lt. Tim Grigsby. “First, they deal with merging with one direction of traffic, then enter the designated lane for accessing the opposing side of the highway. The U-turn lane is especially helpful for the larger vehicles that cannot wait in the median and must wait for a large gap in both directions of traffic,” he said.

When the RCUT opens, through traffic on U.S. 30 will remain unaffected by the intersection reconfiguration; however, traffic on Thayer Road will turn right onto U.S. 30; use the far left lane marked for making a U-turn; continue in the opposite direction on U.S. 30; or turn right onto Thayer Road. Videos of how to navigate the new intersection design are available on the project webpage: transportation.ohio.gov/Allen30/Thayer.

ODOT’s contractor, Shelly Company, Findlay, is expected to complete the installation of signs and lighting this week. Once everything is ready, they will open Thayer Road to traffic and reopen the closed lanes on U.S. 30.

The $2.3 million project includes cul-de-sacs at the adjacent intersections of Mayberry Road and Cool Road. Paving of the cul-de-sacs is expected to be complete by the end of October.

For more project information, visit the project website:

www.transportation.ohio.gov/Allen30Thayer

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