YOUNGSTOWN ODOT opens project bids for 711 connector Phase I

The project's second phase is slated to start in late 2003 or early 2004.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A contract to begin construction on the long-awaited state Route 711 connector project will be awarded within 10 days.
The Ohio Department of Transportation opened bids Wednesday on Phase I of the project with the apparent low bid of $24.9 million coming from a partnership between the construction firms of McCourt Construction of Akron and Shelly and Sands Inc. of Zanesville, said Jennifer Richmond, ODOT District 4 spokeswoman. Seven companies submitted bids.
ODOT will check the financial figures and the paperwork from the McCourt and Shelly and Sands bid and is expected to award the contract to the companies in eight to 10 days, Richmond said.
Phase I's expected cost was $25.3 million, she said.
Construction will begin in the spring and be finished by the fall of 2004.
The 31/2-mile, four-lane divided highway, first proposed 30 years ago, will link Interstate 680 at Salt Springs Road with state Route 11 and Interstate 80 on the Liberty-Girard boundary.
Phase I will add a four-lane highway at Route 711's dead-end point -- just north of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, also known as U.S. Route 422, in Youngstown's Brier Hill section -- north to I-80 and Route 11. The project also includes construction of an interchange at Gypsy Lane and two new bridges, at Trumbull Avenue and Gypsy Lane.
Phase II
Phase II will repave Route 711 from I-680 to the connector near Route 422 and improve or replace three bridges along the Division Street Expressway. It is slated for construction in either late 2003 or early 2004, with bids accepted next fall, Richmond said. The project is expected to be finished in 2006 and is estimated to cost $29.5 million, she said.
The 711 connector project is important for a variety of reasons, Richmond said.
"The primary goal is to complete the missing link in the Youngstown-Warren highway system," she said. "Also, it helps improve the local transportation system and improves the area's socio-economic conditions."
The connector will allow traffic from Youngstown up to the King Graves Road interchange, thus improving access to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, and the Gypsy Lane interchange will provide easier access to Forum Health's Northside Medical Center and Tod Children's Hospital, and nearby locations.
Also, the connector will ease traffic along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, Belmont Avenue, Burlington Street and side streets, Richmond said.
ODOT is in the final stages of acquiring about 390 properties -- including 65 with structures on them, which will be demolished -- for this project, Richmond said.
skolnick@vindy.com