POMEROY - Construction on an interchange at the intersection of U.S. 33 and Ohio 7 at Rock Springs is expected to get underway in early May, George Collins, deputy director, District 10, Ohio Department of Transportation, announced Friday.

Bids on the project were opened Thursday and the apparent low bidder was Beaver Excavating of Canton with a bid of $7,678,000, Collins said.

“This is the company which constructed the first phase of the Ravenswood connector,” he noted.

Collins said the six bids on the project are under review and that the contract is expected to be awarded in about 10 days which will allow the work to get underway right away.

“It will take 12 to 14 months to complete the interchange,” he added.

Preparations for the construction to begin have been underway for several weeks. Trees and brush on land adjacent to the Ohio 7 four-lane highway, several hundred feet south of the current Rock Springs exit, have already been removed.

Collins said the continuing rise in regional traffic counts along U.S. 33, since the completion of the Athens to Darwin Connector and the Ravenswood Connector, and the expectation that trend will continue, have spurred the need for this third U.S. 33 project in Meigs County.

“The goal is to provide continuous movement of U.S. 33 traffic at that location,” Collins said.

The upcoming construction of the U.S. 33 Nelsonville bypass is also expected to create an even greater jump in traffic count along the 33 corridor.