Widening project reduced

The change in plans will save about 400 million.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The state Transportation Review Advisory Council's planned funding of local road projects might not stretch as far as initially expected, but only one local project will be affected.
Gov. Ted Strickland said earlier this week he is concerned about TRAC, which was created by state lawmakers in 1997 to oversee funding of major transportation projects. The governor said TRAC has made commitments to community road projects without adequate finances to cover the costs.
Pat Ungaro, member of the TRAC council, said the council did have lofty goals but was forced to scale back on some of its plans due to bid proposals coming in higher than expected.
"We had a pretty aggressive plan but a lot of the bids that were coming in came in as high as 30 percent higher than planned," Ungaro said. "We are really watching our budget because these bids are coming in so much higher."
Because of the high bid proposals, the council was forced to eliminate some projects and scale back on others. The only local project affected by the reductions is the planned widening of Interstate 80.
Scaled back
Ungaro said the 700 million I-80 widening project would add an additional lane to both sides of I-80 from Austintown to Liberty and from Liberty to Hubbard. The part of the project that includes plans to widen the road from Austintown to Liberty will continue unchanged. Engineering for the project is already under way. The second part of the project with widening plans from Liberty to Hubbard, Ungaro said, has been removed.
Ungaro said the TRAC council will save about 400 million by deleting the Liberty-to-Hubbard portion of the widening project.