By Dean C. Ringle

The Mile Marker Grant Program was an application request, through the Ohio Scenic Byways program, to use Federal Funds to repair 10 existing National Road mile marker monuments and to install 10 new monuments at locations where the mile markers were missing within Madison, Franklin and Licking Counties.  Once approved, an inventory was compiled and precise GPS surveys were performed to identify where the monuments are, or where they should be, located.

In the spring, the shipment of white granite monuments from India were delivered to the local firm of Columbus Art Memorial to finish the engraving of the new monuments.  The initial four new monuments selected to be engraved were: Mile Marker 247 (in front of the Reynoldsburg Municipal Building to replace a marker too far deteriorated to repair), Mile Marker 252 (in Whitehall to replace a marker too far deteriorated to repair), Mile Marker 260 (on West Broad Street at the westbound entrance ramp to I-70 to replace a missing marker), and Mile Marker 267 (in the town of Alton to replace a long-time broken off monument).

Due to site conditions, Mile Marker 260 was selected to be the first of the new granite monuments to be set.  After precisely locating the position and getting the proper permits, our first marker was successfully installed in December.

Two additional monuments were repaired and reset at their proper locations: Mile Marker 249 (at East Main Street and I-270) and Mile Marker 264 (at West Broad Street and I-270).  In 2015 we look forward to continuing the repair of existing monuments and the setting of the remainder of our new monuments.