Cincinnati is gearing up to put Gilbert Avenue on a serious traffic diet, reshaping the two-mile stretch between downtown and Walnut Hills to slow speeding drivers and give people walking and biking a safer shot at using the street. The city’s preferred plan would trim vehicle lanes, add protected bike lanes, install curb bump-outs and cut down crossing distances, with construction targeted for summer 2026 through 2027. City planners say the goal is to rebalance how the corridor works without cutting off drivers, transit or nearby businesses.
As reported by the Cincinnati Business Courier, the redesign would remove some motor-vehicle lanes on segments of Gilbert and replace them with protected, traffic-separated bike lanes. Reporter Chris Wetterich notes that the project sits inside a broader push to better connect downtown with Uptown neighborhoods like Walnut Hills while calming traffic along a corridor that has long carried heavy car volumes.
What will change on the street
According to the City of Cincinnati project page, the Gilbert Avenue Complete Street Project will “right-size” roughly two miles of the roadway from Court Street up to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The plan calls for shorter pedestrian crossings and revamped lane geometry to bring down vehicle speeds. Public exhibits show design alternatives that mix two-way and one-way protected bike lanes, buffered bike lanes and expanded tree lawns in spots where the right-of-way has a little extra breathing room.
Design highlights
The preferred layout layers on curb bump-outs, a two-way protected bike lane that stays on the same side of the street along the southern stretch, and a new bicycle-specific signal to help riders navigate busier intersections, WVXU reports. “This is infrastructure separate from vehicles,” Elese Daniel of the city’s Bicycle Transportation Program told the station, adding that engineers hope that level of separation will convince less-experienced cyclists to give the route a try.
Funding and timeline
Budget documents show the project is backed by roughly $8.8 million in grant funding administered through the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, according to Signal Cincinnati. City materials indicate design work and public outreach ran through 2024 and 2025, with construction slated to kick off in summer 2026 and wrap up in 2027, according to the City of Cincinnati project page.
Community response
Neighborhood groups and developers have been pushing for a calmer, more walkable and bikeable Gilbert as part of a broader reinvestment wave in Walnut Hills, and the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation has explicitly tied the street overhaul to its redevelopment goals. Local coverage notes that the city held open houses in December 2023 and October 2024, with public comment on the preferred design closing in November 2024, signaling a shift from long-running studies into true construction prep, WVXU reported.
What to expect during construction
Drivers will not lose Gilbert completely, but they should expect some headaches. City officials plan to stage the work so traffic can keep moving, though there will be periodic lane closures and temporary detours during the heaviest construction, according to reporting from the Cincinnati Business Courier. Next up are final engineering plans, utility coordination and bidding, after which construction crews are expected to roll in starting in summer 2026.
