Residents speak out on bridge project

The project is supposed to begin in spring of 2008.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- People who are wondering how a project involving four bridges will affect them gathered at an open house Tuesday.
The Ohio Department of Transportation took public comment and questions at the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments offices on Mahoning Avenue.
The $8.2 million project is scheduled to begin in spring 2008. It will involve rehabilitating the bridges, all over state Route 11, on Mahoning Avenue, Kirk Road and New Road in Austintown and Western Reserve Road in Canfield.
Jennifer Richmond, a spokeswoman for ODOT District 4, said all four bridges will be raised because they don't meet the vertical clearance limit. She said the bridge decks are in poor condition and will be repaired, and the bridges will be painted.
There will be no detour around the bridge on Mahoning Avenue, Richmond said, because of the large amount of traffic on that road. She said that bridge will take six months to finish, and a lane will be kept open.
The other three bridges will have detours, but Kirk and New roads will never be closed at the same time, Richmond said.
She said the project is only expected to take one construction season, so it should be finished by fall 2008.
Concerns
Bill and Nancy Kunkle stood in front of an easel displaying a poster of the Western Reserve Road bridge plan. They're worried, they said, because there's already a blind spot at their driveway, at the east end of the bridge, and they're afraid it will get worse.
Kunkle said he's also worried about how the sandstone foundation of their house, built in 1874, will withstand vibrations from the equipment during the work.
Chuck Brosko of Kirk Road was hoping that bridge work would benefit him by eliminating a problem with storm-water runoff in his yard. The storm drains on the road aren't doing their jobs, he said, and he was hoping that new storm drains would be included in the bridge project. He was told they won't be, and that his problem is one for Mahoning County.
Clotida Kit of New Road had the same question, and she got the same answer. A drainage ditch in front of her house is backing up because it's clogged with leaves and other debris, said Bronson Funke of Palmer Engineering, the design consultant for all four bridges.
But it's the county that's likely responsible for keeping it clean, he said. Kit said the county did clean it out last year, but since then, it's gotten clogged again. Water gets into her basement.