6-mile stretch of Mahoning Ave. set for repaving

By Peter H. Milliken

The $1.8 million project will be financed mostly with federal highway funds.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning Avenue will be repaved this summer between Meridian and Lipkey roads, including the causeway and bridge at Meander Reservoir.

Work on the $1.8 million project will start in early summer and is expected to be completed by the end of September, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy Mahoning County engineer.

County commissioners approved an agreement Thursday with the Ohio Department of Transportation to provide $1,440,000 in federal highway funds for the project.

The remainder of the money is the county’s $360,000 in local funds, which the county borrowed last fall and will repay from gasoline tax and motor vehicle registration fees.

The most recent paving on that heavily traveled part of Mahoning Avenue was performed in the late 1990s, Kenner said. Parts of the section to be repaved this year are five lanes wide and serve a busy commercial section of Austintown.

At least one lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction while work is under way, Kenner said.

The work will include removing and replacing 2 inches of asphalt paving, repair of damaged curbs, installation of handicap curb ramps at all intersections, and removal of an unused railroad crossing between Four Mile Run and Meridian roads to make the road smoother.

Concerning this year’s extraordinary pothole problem, commissioners retroactively approved a $2,025, one-day rental of a machine that mixes aggregate with a liquid to make cold patch asphalt for temporary road repairs.

“We were hoping that, if we had fresh cold mix, it would stay in the holes a little bit longer,” Kenner said, explaining why the machine was brought here.

The $80,000 machine, rented from Unique Paving Materials, a Toledo area company, made 450 tons of cold patch when it was here about two weeks ago. The county hopes to have its own machine repaired and in service next winter, Kenner said.

County engineer’s office crews are patching potholes daily and working weekend overtime, weather permitting, to accomplish that task, Kenner said. “We are out there every day, even in the rain, to get the really big ones, but, on a day that it is clear and not raining, we have every available person out patching potholes,’’ Kenner said.

Last month, engineer’s office crews drove daily to a Canton manufacturing plant to pick up a product called hot-cold patch that stays in place somewhat better than conventional cold patch.

The county expects to have hot asphalt available to make more- permanent pothole repairs in about two weeks, she said, noting that the asphalt plants typically open around April 1.

In other business, Judee L. Genetin, acting director of the county’s Department of Job and Family Services, told commissioners her department will soon hire a bilingual eligibility worker to help Spanish-speaking clients. The department serves about 240 Spanish-speaking families, she said.

milliken@vindy.com