North Road set to reopen Friday

All but $600,000 came from state and federal grants.

HOWLAND — After one year of only being able to go south on North Road, motorists will once again be able to drive in both directions starting Friday around noon.

Randy Smith, deputy director of the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office, said a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 9 a.m. Friday inside the triangle at the front of the Surrey Hill neighborhood.

The removal of barriers that kept motorists on one lane will be removed between 10 a.m. and noon and mark the official reopening of the road, Smith said.

The $3.7 million project was completed in a little more than one year and involved the widening along its 8,630 feet from 22 feet to 28 feet, the installation of curbs throughout and the installation and replacement of storm sewers.

Smith said projections called for the job to take two years.

The project was carried out by Marucci & Gaffney Excavating, Inc. of Youngstown, with engineering done by MS Consultants, Inc. of Youngstown. County Engineer John Latell’s office administered the project.

The project was primarily funded by state and federal grants, though the county did use a $600,000 state loan and will have to repay that amount, Smith said.

Some areas within the project had storm sewers before the project began that were replaced, and some areas had open ditches.

The project also included the addition of a right turn lane at the northern end of the project at East Market Street. The additional lane will allow northbound traffic to have separate right-turn, left-turn and straight through lanes on North Road at East Market Street.

Left turn lanes were added at Allenwood Drive South and Adrian and Berkshire drives.

The south end of the project, near Youngstown Road, involved only resurfacing of 345 feet of North Road that already had storm sewers and curbs, Smith said.

The project also included the leveling of the road in some areas to improve drainage. In some places the road was lowered by 1 to 2 feet.

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