County engineers briefed commissioners on July 22 about a multi-year plan to reduce hazardous driver behavior at the Griggstown Causeway, the one-lane bridge that connects Franklin Township to western county municipalities.

Matthew Loper, county engineer, said the project team conducted a concept development process and public information meeting that drew 84 sign-ins. Loper said the preferred, publicly well-received alternative would keep the historic one-lane bridge but add permanent metering signals on both approaches, a left-turn lane on River Road, and all-way stop controls at nearby Canal Road and Bunker Hill Road. "What we chose to do is meter the bridge," Loper told the board.

Engineers told the board they studied multiple options — including a parallel bridge, full two-lane replacement, one-way conversion and a new bridge at Bunker Hill Road — and rejected those alternatives because of higher cost, environmental impacts, and lack of prior public support. The county estimated the preferred package at roughly $2 million and said the measure is intended to "provide order to the intersection and improve safety and maintain the historic one-lane bridge," Loper said.

Loper said the intersection has a high crash rate, that drivers sometimes use opposing lanes or shoulders to bypass queuing, and that converting the bridge to a two-lane crossing would shift traffic onto other local crossings and would require substantial permitting. He added the project would not address the causeway's flooding problems, which the county intends to study separately.

Next steps described were finalizing the concept plan, completing preliminary engineering and design, obtaining permits and easements (including property acquisitions on the western side), and then bidding and construction. Loper estimated roughly two years for the design and permitting sequence but noted schedules depend on approvals and right-of-way acquisition.

The presentation elicited public questions at an earlier public information session; county officials said both Franklin and Montgomery municipal leaders expressed support at the July meeting. No formal vote or commitment of construction funds occurred during the July 22 work session; commissioners were briefed and the county engineer said the project will move to design and permitting steps.