Officials hope state will improve Route 30

The state will stop planning for the costly expansion project.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- The Columbiana County commissioners hope the state will at least make improvements to dangerous portions of U.S. Route 30 after it postponed expansion plans.
Commissioner James Hoppel said Wednesday that plans to expand the east-west route from two to four lanes from Canton to East Liverpool began in 1956.
But Becky McCarty, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation's District 11, said that the project has been taken off the draft plan for major highway construction for 2007-12.
The independent Transportation Review Advisory Council may still weigh in on the issue, and people can send their comments to ODOT by April 12, McCarty said.
But engineering plans will be put on hold for the project that has an estimated cost of $500 million.
"We're talking about a $500-million project. That's huge. The annual state construction budget is $1.4 billion statewide," McCarty said.
Still going on
A previously announced expansion of Route 30 in Stark County to make a bypass around East Canton will progress as planned.
ODOT's figures show that 7,400 vehicles travel east on Route 30 each day toward Canton. McCarty said that is a low traffic figure.
Hoppel said Route 30 is used by many coal trucks. If the state isn't moving forward with the four-lane project, it could improve some portions, he said.
Route 30 has several sharp turns that could be straightened and several steep hills that could use a third lane for slow trucks, Hoppel said.
County officials have also lobbied for a bypass that would let trucks go just north of Lisbon to avoid the steep Canton Hill on Route 30 west of the village.
Troy Graft of the county engineer's office told the commissioners that ODOT is well aware of the road's dangerous portions.
The engineer's office is talking to ODOT about some of the trouble spots, he added.
wilkinson@vindy.com