COLUMBIANA COUNTY Highway project nears completion

The project was undertaken to remedy a traffic hazard.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Motorists are probably finding it easier to negotiate the crowded commercial area just north of the village.
Crews are finishing primary work on a highway widening and improvement project that began in late June, said Becky McCarty of the Ohio Department of Transportation's District 11 office.
ODOT is overseeing the undertaking.
The construction, which has often limited traffic to one lane, has entailed installing a turning lane on a nearly half-mile stretch of state Route 45 between Saltwell and Lisbon roads.
The road reopened to two-lane traffic last week, McCarty said Tuesday.
Most of the project area is in Center Township, though the southern portion is in the village.
The area to be served by the turning lane is bordered on both sides by retail businesses and offices.
Motorists pulling from parking lots onto the highway, or waiting to turn left into businesses, posed a traffic hazard, ODOT officials have said.
Adding the turning lane is expected to correct that hazard and reduce accidents in the area.
Still left to do
One part of the job remaining to be done is installing traffic signals at the two points where Saltwell intersects with state Route 45.
The two intersections are within a few dozen feet of one another. The signals to be installed will be set up so that they change simultaneously.
Also installed as part of the undertaking were curbs and storm water drains.
Crews are expected to return in the spring and do final landscaping work, such as planting grass in rights-of-way bordering the road.
The project cost about $1.5 million and was jointly funded by the state and the federal highway safety administration, which put up about $850,000 of the total, McCarty said.
General contractor for the job was The Shelly Co. of Twinsburg.