State Route 4 (SR 4), formerly known as Inter-county Highway 4 until 1921 and State Highway 4 in 1922, is a major north–south state highway in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It is the fifth longest state route in Ohio. Its southern terminus is at U.S. Route 42 in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, and its northern terminus is at

U.S. Route 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to P ...

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Erie County, Ohio, Erie County, Ohio, United States. Situated along the shores of Lake Erie in the northern part of the state, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( wes ...

. Its path is nearly ruler-straight for many miles. Some portions of the route are still marked as

Dixie Highway Dixie Highway was a United States auto trail first planned in 1914 to connect the Midwest with the South. It was part of a system and was expanded from an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final system is better understood as a network of ...

. The northern portion was constructed by the Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike Company, see

Turnpike Lands Turnpike Lands were a group of land tracts granted by the United States Congress to the state of Ohio in 1827 along the path of a proposed road in the northwest corner of the state. History With the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Indian Nations ...

Route description

State Route 4 begins in Cincinnati, running through Middletown as well as

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, then joining

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 in ...

, with which it runs concurrently for over three miles. The route then goes through

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

and continues to

Marion Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mario ...

. It then travels to Bucyrus, finally heading northeast to Sandusky, where it ends. The portion of SR 4 between High Street ( SR 129) and North Fair Avenue in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

is designated as the "

Firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

Paramedic A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

Patrick Wolterman Memorial Highway", in honor of a firefighter/paramedic for that city who died December 28, 2015, while battling an intentionally-set house fire. The two men who started the blaze were convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

and

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

in November 2017 and sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

. This portion of SR 4 passes by Wolterman's

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equipment, fire h ...

History

In 1912 the Route ran from Sandusky to Columbus. In 1924 the Route extended south from Columbus on former SH 5, following current

US 23 } U.S. Route 23 or U.S. Highway 23 (US 23) is a major north–south U.S. Highway between Jacksonville, Florida, and Mackinaw City, Michigan. It is an original 1926 route which originally reached only as far south as Portsmouth, Ohio, and has since ...

alignment from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Waldo Waldo may refer to: People * Waldo (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Waldo (surname), a list of people * Waldo (footballer) (1934-2019), full name Waldo Machado da Silva, Brazilian footballer Places Canada * Waldo, ...

, and current SR 423 from Waldo to

.Route 4
(The Unofficial Ohio State Highways Web Site) by John Simpson In 1926, alignment from Portsmouth to Marion certified as US 23; SR 4 realigned south of Marion to its current southern terminus in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, replacing the former SR 6 from Cincinnati to Middletown, the former SR 52 from Middletown to south of Milford Center, and the former SR 38 from Marysville to Marion. In 1959 alignment from Dayton to Springfield rerouted and upgraded to freeway; segment through

Fairborn Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. Fairborn is a suburb of Dayton, and part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the only city in the world named Fairborn, a port ...

around

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place just east of Dayton, Ohio, in Greene County, Ohio, Greene and Montgomery County, Ohio, Montgomery counties. It includes both Wright and Patte ...

designated as SR 444. In 1967 the segment from SR 201 to SR 444 upgraded to freeway. In 2011 the Dayton segment was rerouted via I-75. In 2021 the Dayton segment rerouted from Germantown Pike to Gettysburg Avenue interchange with

US 35 U.S. Route 35 (US 35) is a United States Highway that runs southeast-northwest for approximately from the western suburbs of Charleston, West Virginia to northern Indiana. Although the highway is physically southeast-northwest, it is nomi ...

Future

Huber Heights safety improvements

The intersection of SR 4 and New Carlisle Pike/Lower Valley Pike in Huber Heights, between SR 235/Chambersburg Road and

, has had at least 15 accidents between 2012 and August 2018, resulting in three fatalities and 20 injuries. The intersection, which is uncontrolled, is along a high-speed portion of SR 4 that is near-

expressway Expressway may refer to: * Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic. * Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road. *Expressway, the fictional s ...

in character; additionally, the

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

is not wide enough to allow longer vehicles such as

tractor-trailer A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer a ...

s to wait there safely before making a left turn (north) from New Carlisle Pike onto SR 4. Fixes for the problem intersection, all rejected, included adding lights and signage; closing the intersection; adding a

traffic light Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – known also as robots in South Africa are signalling devices positioned at intersection (road), road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control flows of traf ...

; constructing a

roundabout A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...

; adding an

overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass'' together form ...

; requiring traffic from New Carlisle Pike to northbound SR 4 to instead travel southbound to the SR 235/Chambersburg Road interchange, exit and re-enter northbound; and rerouting New Carlisle Pike to Chambersburg Road. At the August 6, 2018 Huber Heights

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

meeting, an engineering firm hired by the city, working in conjunction with the

Ohio Department of Transportation The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT; ) is the administrative department of the Ohio state government responsible for developing and maintaining all state and U.S. roadways outside of municipalities and all Interstates except the Ohio T ...

(ODOT), proposed two alternatives. The first, a restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT) (also known as a superstreet), would prohibit left turns from New Carlisle Pike or Lower Valley Pike, and cross-traffic between the two; those movements would be accomplished via right turns onto SR 4, followed by designated median

U-turn A U-turn in driving refers to performing a 180° rotation to reverse the direction of travel. It is called a "U-turn" because the maneuver looks like the letter U. In some areas, the maneuver is illegal, while in others, it is treated as a m ...

s. Left turns from SR 4 to New Carlisle Pike and Lower Valley Pike would still be permitted. This alternative has an estimated cost of $1 million, with ODOT paying 80% of the cost and the city paying 20%. The second alternative, sometimes called a "basic RCUT", is similar to the first alternative, but would additionally prohibit left turns from SR 4 to New Carlisle Pike and Lower Valley Pike; those movements would be accomplished via median U-turns, followed by right turns. This alternative's estimated cost is $701,000, using the same 80%/20% cost split. A superstreet already exists along the SR 4 Bypass in nearby Butler County.

Major intersections

State Route 4 Bypass

State Route 4 By-Pass (SR 4B or SR 4 Bypass, known locally as Bypass 4) is a north–south state highway through Butler County in the western part of the state. The route runs from SR 4 in Fairfield to SR 4 in Fairfield Township north of the

city limits. SR 4B begins at a single-

quadrant roadway intersection A quadrant roadway intersection adds an additional "quadrant roadway" between two legs of an intersection. This roadway adds two three-way intersections in addition to the original four-way intersection moving all left turns (in right-hand traffi ...

with SR 4 (Dixie Highway) and Ross Road in eastern Fairfield. Here, the connector road is located in the northwest quadrant of the intersection. The route travels north as a divided four-lane road first crossing over a

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

railroad and intersecting Port Union Road. The next three intersections SR 4B has (from south to north: Symmes Road, Tylersville Road, and Hamilton–Mason Road) are

superstreet A superstreet, also known as a restricted crossing U-turn (RCUT), J-turn, or reduced conflict intersection (RCI), is a type of road intersection that is a variation of the Michigan left. In this configuration, in contrast to the Michigan left, t ...

intersections. The roadway briefly expands to three lanes in each direction between Symmes Road and Tylersville Road as it crosses over a

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

railroad. This segment also features the Fairfield-Hamilton city boundary. After the Hamilton–Mason Road intersection, SR 4B comes to a

diamond interchange A diamond interchange is a common type of road junction, used where a controlled-access highway crosses a minor road. Design The freeway itself is grade-separated from the minor road, one crossing the other over a bridge. Approaching the ...

with SR 129 (Butler County Veterans Highway). North of Princeton Road, the route shrinks to an undivided two-lane road, passes under an overpass carrying Millikin Road, and ends at a signalized intersection with SR 4. The entirety of SR 4B is included as a part of the National Highway System. SR 4B was constructed in the early 1970s by ODOT to allow for easier travel between Cincinnati and Middletown. In the 1990s, the Butler County

Transportation Improvement District A transportation improvement district (abbreviated TID) or transportation development district (TDD) is a special-purpose district created in some U.S. states for the purpose of coordinating and financing transportation infrastructure improvement pr ...

(BCTID) was formed to help address traffic congestion along the fully two-lane bypass route. Construction started on the widening of SR 4B in 2010 which included the widening of the road from the southern terminus to SR 129, the widening of three bridges, and the creation of three superstreet and one quadrant roadway intersections. The superstreet intersections were completed in 2011. Construction of the expanded roadway finished in August 2012 on time and on budget, at a cost of $22.8 million. The BCTID is continuing to study the option of widening SR 4B north of SR 129. SR 4B is the first superstreet corridor in Ohio. As of April 2013, it was reported that the majority of motorists in the area did not approve of the new design, with some avoiding SR 4B entirely.

Major junctions

References

External links