Route 11 bridge projects to begin

By Ed Runyan

All four projects should be completed by August 2009, ODOT estimates.

AUSTINTOWN — The New Road bridge over state Route 11 will close April 7 — the first of three Route 11 bridges in Mahoning County to be closed this year for painting and resurfacing.

Each project — the other two will be on the bridges at Kirk Road in Austintown and Western Reserve Road in Canfield Township — will take a little more than three months.

When those projects are complete, work will then begin on the Mahoning Avenue bridge over Route 11 in Austintown. That project, which also includes widening and the addition of turn lanes, a sidewalk and vandalism fence, will take about nine months.

The good news is that at least one lane will remain open in each direction while the Mahoning Avenue project takes place, said Paula Putnam, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, Region 4 office in Akron.

Only temporary lane restrictions are likely on Route 11 during any of the projects. ODOT awarded A.P. O’Horo Co. of Youngstown a contract of $5.7 million for the four projects.

which are likely to be complete by August 2009.

Residents living near the New Road bridge said there are alternative routes to the places where they go the most, and those add only about five minutes to their drive.

Dwight Hicks of North Beacon Drive, just north of the bridge, off state Route 46, said he will just have to take another of the east-west bridges over Route 11 during the closure to visit his grandchildren in Boardman — either Kirk or Shields road.

“There’s lots of routes to take,” he said.

Irene Flowers, who also lives on North Beacon Drive, said her trips to her job as a French teacher at Austintown Fitch High School will probably take about five minutes longer.

“The biggest thing will be to remember” to take the detour, she said. “I won’t be a happy camper but they have to do what they have to do,” she said.

“It’s not a big deal,” her daughter, J.J. Flowers said of her commute to the Wedgewood Plaza, where she works at a fitness center. “I’ll just take the back roads.”

Don Renstrom of New Road, who lives on the other side of the bridge, said he is thinking the biggest inconvenience will be for emergency vehicles, but there is another bridge not far north of there that can carry traffic around the construction zone with a couple of minutes of extra travel time.

After the New Road project is complete, workers will begin on the Western Reserve Road project as early as June and then on the Kirk Road project as early as August.

None of the four roads will be closed at the same time, Putnam said. Detours will be posted at each location, and access to all homes and businesses will be maintained during the projects.

The Mahoning Avenue project, likely to begin as early as late summer or as late as November, will include additional left-turn lanes to access Route 11 north and south.

A vandalism fence will be added to both sides of the Mahoning Avenue span, and a sidewalk will be added on the south side of the bridge. A sidewalk is already available on the north side of the bridge.

All four bridges will be raised between three and five inches to meet requirements that the bridges provide a 15-foot clearance, Putnam said.

The New and Kirk road bridges and Mahoning Avenue bridge will be raised three inches, the Western Reserve bridge by five inches.

Putnam said District 4 has the largest number of projects in 2008 of any of the 12 districts in the state.

Mahoning Avenue is the busiest of the four roads that will be closed, with 23,970 cars traveling over it daily during a survey in 2000. The traffic numbers for the three others are: New Road, 9,345; Western Reserve Road, 4,954; Kirk Road, 9,370.

runyan@vindy.com