US 33 expansion in SE Ohio still set to finish in fall 2028, ODOT says
The Ohio Department of Transportation is still on track to finish its expansion of U.S. Route 33 in Athens and Meigs counties by fall 2028, despite record rainfall this year in southeast Ohio, an ODOT engineer told The Dispatch. The $274 million expansion, which started in 2025, will add two lanes to 25 miles of U.S. 33 in Athens and Meigs counties, making the route four lanes wide all the way from Columbus to the Ohio River. Truck traffic makes up a large portion of the vehicles on U.S. 33 from Athens to West Virginia, and the expansion will stop cars having to pass trucks on a two lane road and risking a head-on crash, Ashley Rittenhouse, ODOT District 10 public information officer, said in an email. ODOT also expects traffic to increase on U.S. 33 after the expansion as drivers are drawn to the new lanes and higher speed limits, Rittenhouse said. So far, construction crews in Meigs County have installed more than 40,000 feet of drainage, placed 7,500 tons of rock and completed 1 million cubic yards of excavation, Cary Betzing, ODOT District 10 construction engineer, told The Dispatch in an Oct. 16 email. In Athens County, crews
