By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The Brookwood Flyover and the Brookwood exit, which will give northbound Hwy. 67/167 traffic easier access to Kiehl Avenue and Brockington Road, will open early Thursday.
The northbound Brookwood exit is just south of the current northbound Kiehl Avenue exit. That Kiehl Avenue exit will be closed from about 6 to about 11 a.m. Thursday for repairs. “It won’t close until we have the Brookwood exit open,” said Randy Ort, spokesman for the state Highway Department.
He added that the new flyover, which brings traffic to Brookwood and allows vehicles to go left and head south on the frontage road or right to Brockington and Kiehl, will relieve a lot of the traffic congestion on the Kiehl overpass.
Frontage roads running parallel to Hwy. 67/167 from the Wildwood Avenue exit to the Kiehl Avenue exit were made into one-way roads back in June, matching the flow of traffic on the frontage roads from Wildwood to McCain, to anticipate the opening of the flyover, which is similar to the one at McCain.
Ort said the one-way conversion has gone well. “It’s taken a little time for drivers to adjust to the new traffic patterns,” he said.
The work is part of the $42.3 million contract awarded to Weaver-Bailey Contractors in September 2005.
The project includes reconstruction and widening of Hwy. 67/167 from four to six lanes from Wildwood to just north of Kiehl and from McCain Boulevard south to I-40.
The contract also includes the Brookwood flyover and a new Kiehl overpass.