Bridge rehab to begin

By Denise Dick

AKRON — With a $10 million price, the rehabilitation of the bridges on U.S. Routes 62 and 422 is the largest Ohio Department of Transportation project set to start this year in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

The contract for the project is set to be awarded in October and work finished in spring 2010.

The Youngstown bridges over Crab Creek, Andrews Avenue, Valley Street and the Norfolk Southern Railroad will be rehabilitated.

ODOT District 4 includes Mahoning, Trumbull, Ashtabula, Portage, Stark and Summit counties, and officials announced district projects upcoming this year and gave updates on active projects.

Mahoning County’s projects total $131 million — $109 million in active and $22 million in upcoming projects — with Trumbull’s total construction projects at $34 million — $15 million in active projects and $19 million in upcoming work.

“With 5,000 lane miles, District 4 maintains the most lane miles in the state,” said spokeswoman Paula Putnam, comparing the number to other ODOT districts.

At $92 million, the ongoing project to widen Interstate 80 to six lanes from the Ohio Turnpike to the I-80/state Route 11 interchange remains one of the costliest in the state. The bridges span Meander Reservoir.

Work began in early 2006 and is scheduled for completion in October 2009.

“Everything is on schedule,” said Gery Noirot, field engineer for District 4 construction. “We just completed our first full year of construction, and we’re in Phase 4 now.”

Last fall, crews finished reconstruction of the new eastbound bridge over the reservoir. This year, the I-80 westbound pavement and bridges will be demolished and work will start to widen I-80 westbound.

Another major project in Mahoning expected to start this spring is widening of the U.S. Route 224 intersection with Lockwood Boulevard to add dual eastbound left turn lanes. Work also will include the addition of a southbound left-turn lane on Lockwood.

Also slated to continue this year is the resurfacing of Market Street between Route 164 and Midlothian Boulevard and Route 224 between West Boulevard and Y S Railroad, just past Southern Park Mall. Total cost is $3.6 million, and work is expected to be done in September.

The state Route 11 bridges at Mahoning Avenue and Western Reserve, Kirk and New roads are being painted and redecked. New Kirk and Western Reserve will be closed for 90 days during bridge work. Work started last week, and completion of the $7 million project is expected in fall 2009.

Columbiana County is part of ODOT’s District 11. Major work in that county this year includes completion of state Route 170 widening in Calcutta. The $7.4 million project to reconstruct and widen the road started last spring.

Nearly 35 miles of pavement will be resurfaced in Columbiana totaling more than $11 million.