Courtesy of the Department of Physical Facilities This aerial view shows the location of the new on- and off-ramps designed to create quicker and easier access to the Medical Center from state Route 315. The construction project calls for a 315 northbound off-ramp to begin at King Avenue and end at West Ninth Avenue. A southbound on-ramp will curve from West 12th Avenue back to 315.

Improved access to OSU Medical Center draws nearer

Construction on 315 ramp project expected to begin this summer

Access to the Ohio State Medical Center will improve dramatically after two new ramps providing a direct connection to and from state Route 315 from Cannon Drive are constructed just west of the hospital.

Work is expected to begin this summer on the two-year project, which has involved the Medical Center, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the city of Columbus.

The Medical Center is one of only two adult Level One Trauma Centers in Franklin County, and treats many of Ohio's most severe injuries. The emergency center treats about 55,000 patients a year, and the hospital treats about 658,000 patients a year. The need for a quick and easy access to the hospital from the south for emergency vehicles, and a clearly marked, easy-to-follow path to the hospital for public vehicles has fueled the project, said Ralph Hudson, director of Health Services Facilities Planning.

"The real beneficiaries of this are our patients. They are seriously ill, and in trauma cases, minutes are very critical," Hudson said.

Douglas Rund, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, has been close to this project since it was first conceived 30 years ago by OSU planners and Medical Center personnel. He said timing en route to the hospital is of the essence in trauma and emergency cases.

"We sometimes talk about the'golden hour' in trauma care. Studies have shown that patients benefit the most if they can receive treatment from a trauma center within one hour from their injury," Rund said.

Under the current configuration, time is being lost while emergency vehicle drivers backtrack from freeway exits at Lane Avenue or Neil Avenue, as is the case with trauma patients being transferred from University Hospitals East, Rund said.

The construction project calls for a 315 northbound off-ramp to begin at King Avenue and end at West Ninth Avenue. A southbound on-ramp will curve from West 12th Avenue back to 315. The project also calls for minor widening of the 315 bridge just south of King Avenue, and will add two new bridges over the Olentangy River, said Michelle May, spokesperson for ODOT.

The total cost of the project is $9.6 million, with ODOT and the Medical Center sharing the cost equally. However, OSU has received a $3.5 million federal grant to be applied toward its portion, said Teresa Stankiewicz, assistant vice president for physical facilities.

She said a minimal effect on traffic in the area is expected during the construction period.

"We expect to see periodic, but very brief, one-lane closures on Cannon Drive during construction, but it should be very minor," Stankiewicz said. A yet-to-be determined amount of University parking spaces in the area (just west of Cannon Drive and north of King Avenue) will be lost, she added, depending on the size of the right-of-way connected to the project.

Project manager Tricia Petras said the ramp project also includes widening of Cannon Drive that occurred earlier.

"If you look at the whole scope of the project, it will actually improve movement in the area. It will take a lot of the traffic off the city streets and put it on the freeway," Petras said.

Based on computer modeling done by ODOT, traffic is expected to increase in some areas and decrease in others, May said. The results indicate traffic is expected to:

• decrease up to 20 percent on Neil Avenue and High Street because cross-city and downtown traffic will probably use Interstate 670 and state Route 315 to reach the new ramps;

• decrease 10 percent to 20 percent on King Avenue between Cannon Drive and Neil Avenue; and

• increase 10 percent to 15 percent on King Avenue between Olentangy River Road and Cannon Drive, and at the intersection of King and Neil avenues farther east.

Once the ramps are built, the city of Columbus will monitor traffic in the area for increases or decreases, and has agreed to work with the local community on traffic calming measures if the volume or speed of traffic in local neighborhoods increases, May said.

The design for the ramps is about 80 percent complete. Once completed, the plans will go to ODOT for review and final approval, and ODOT will then bid construction contracts and oversee the construction work.

In conjunction with the design, ODOT has conducted a thorough environmental review assessing all the potential environmental impacts of the project. That review, conducted collaboratively with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and various state agencies, has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration. ODOT is currently acquiring the necessary right-of-way for the project, to be donated by OSU and the city of Columbus.

TRI celebrates anniversary with new readings

If the activities of Ohio State's Department of Theatre were depicted in a play, one could say that in this year's act, several important plot lines are converging.

The Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute (TRI) is celebrating its 50th anniversary, a new performance space for presenting new theatrical works has recently opened, and a number of creative collaborations have formed between students, faculty and researchers.

For several years now, the department has placed an emphasis on new works, presenting new productions in each season's repertoire, working closely with guest artists involved in cutting-edge theater and providing students and faculty with support for creating original work. TRI has also supported the creation of new work, by collecting scripts and materials from contemporary playwrights.

"It all came together this year," said Alan L. Woods, director of TRI. "It occurred to me that it would be a good idea to have some play readings. We could present new works, and have the opportunity to expose works already in our collection."

All of the readings in TRI's series will take place in the New Works Lab, a studio space on the third floor of the Drake Performance and Event Center that is designated for stage readings and small workshop productions. It is converted from former classrooms and seats about 50 people.

The first reading, Sisters: New Work from the International Centre for Women Playwrights, was given on Oct. 11. TRI was recently selected to serve as the archive for the International Centre for Women Playwrights, an Oregon-based group which represents nearly 200 female playwrights working around the world.

Mercury Seven with Signs Following, a staged reading of a trilogy of plays co-conceived and performed by Sue Ott Rowlands, associate professor of theatre, and co-conceived and written by Mark Evans Bryan, a theatre doctoral student, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29. The reading is directed by Bruce Hermann, assistant professor of theatre. (See sidebar below.)

A play by Thurber Playwright in Residence Maria Shron, Time and the Beast, will have a reading at 7:30 p.m. on March 12. Shron, a bilingual playwright originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, is teaching a playwriting course at Ohio State this winter. Her work will be added to TRI's archives, joining a collection that houses the work of all of the other Thurber House's writers in residence since the mid-1980s.

The readings at 7:30 p.m. on April 16, Why Hanna's Skirt Won't Stay Down and The White Whore and the Bit Player, are taken from TRI's Tom Eyen Collection. Wendell Stone, a postdoctoral fellow at TRI who is an expert on Eyen, will direct the reading. Eyen was a Cambridge, Ohio, native and author of the musical Dreamgirls and the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.

And finally, From Mame to Jabberwock: Lawrence and Lee Excerpts, at 4 p.m. May 12, will be presented as part of a TRI reunion weekend May 10-11.

Other events include:

A symposium, Against All Odds: Ruby Elzy, OSU, and the African American Performing Experience, will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. in Roy Bowen Theatre in the Drake on Feb 24. Elzy is an Ohio State alumna who created the role of Serena in the 1936 world premiere of Porgy and Bess. Nurturing the Performer: The Charles McCracken-Ruby Elzy Correspondence, a reading of letters between Elzy and McCracken, an Ohio State professor whose family hosted Elzy during her student years, will be read at 7:30 p.m. Chiquita Mullins-Lee, communications officer for the University Libraries and frequent CATCO dramaturg, put the script together.

An exhibit in the Sills Gallery of the Main Library will be displayed from February until April. The Alkire Years: Creating the OSU Dance Tradition focuses on the career of Alkire, who founded Ohio State's dance program.

Village Voice writer Laurie Stone will speak on "Comedy and Solo Performance: What the Comic Voice Can Get Away With" at 4:30 p.m. on April 11 in the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater.

Texts, songs and visual images from the collections will be presented for Triumphs and Trash: From the Holdings of the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute at the Alumni Advisory Council meeting on April 19.

The TRI reunion will conclude with an 8 p.m. May 11 performance in Roy Bowen Theatre of The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stevenson.

TRI is a research facility with Ohio State Libraries and a research arm of the Department of Theatre.

"We are unique in that regard, nationally," Woods said. "It's terrific because it means when we get a collection of materials, it's pretty easy to organize a class or seminars or to have some sort of academic analysis of those materials."

The institute's mission is not only to provide materials to students and scholars that make the theater of the past accessible, but to preserve the theater world of the present for the future.

The institute works to help preserve those moments before the final curtain drops.

"Theater is ephemeral," Woods said. "It disappears too quickly."

Information sought on missing OSU student

University Area Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information about the disappearance or location of an Ohio State senior who was last seen shortly before Christmas.

Chris J. Gerspacher, 26, was last seen by friends on Dec. 22 at his apartment on Alden Avenue in the University District. His parents, Bob and Holly Gerspacher, who live in Delaware, had expected to see him on Christmas Day, but he never arrived at their home. His family filed a missing person report and has sought information by posting fliers and a Web site, www.gerspacher.com, with photographs and more details. Chris Gerspacher, a history major, works part-time at the University Book Exchange. He is white, 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 165 pounds and has light-brown hair worn in dreadlocks, a short beard and blue eyes. His dogs, identification and money were found in his unlocked apartment, and his car was parked out front.

Anyone with information about Gerspacher's disappearance or his location is asked to call the University Area Crime Stoppers at 247-TIPS (247-8477). University Area Crime Stoppers has posted the reward for any information received by March 1. Crime Stoppers does not use Caller ID and does not seek the identity of the caller, and a special coding system protects the identity of the caller.

University Area Crime Stoppers is an affiliate of Central Ohio Crime Stoppers and is part of an international network of nonprofit Crime Stoppers organizations that offer cash rewards for anonymous tips leading to the arrest or indictment of crime suspects.

The board of University Area Crime Stoppers includes Ohio State students and representatives of the Community Crime Patrol, Ohio State, area business and property owners, and permanent residents. Ohio State Police and the Columbus Division of Police have assigned officers as liaisons to the board.

University Area Crime Stoppers also takes calls from persons with information about any crime on and off campus in the University area. Those with information about felony crimes in the wider Columbus community should call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 645-TIPS (645-8477). Information leading to the arrest and indictment of a crime suspect could qualify the caller for a reward as determined by the University Area Crime Stoppers Board or by the Central Ohio Crime Stoppers Reward Committee.