Repairs to New Road to be finished by July 4

By Peter H. Milliken

Underdrains, catch basins and new pavement will be applied to New Road.

AUSTINTOWN — Part of a main east-west thoroughfare in the township will reopen soon.

A section of New Road between Meridian and Raccoon roads, which has been closed since mid-February, is expected to reopen by July 4, according to Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy Mahoning County engineer.

The engineer’s office closed the bend in the road until permanent repairs could be made because drainage problems made it impossible to keep cold patch in the potholes during the winter.

“It became completely deteriorated over the winter with potholes because there’s a lot of water being held in the stone that’s underneath the road. All the asphalt popped out and we couldn’t keep it passable,” Kenner explained.

The county commissioners awarded the $54,028 New Road drainage improvement project on Thursday to Foust Construction Inc. of Girard.

“We’re putting in underdrains, so that we’ll be able to drain the water out of the pavement and put it into a storm sewer. We’ll put new pavement over it. We’re also adding catch basins so that we’ll get the water off the road,” Kenner said.

The work will be tedious because it will be performed next to a high-pressure transcontinental natural-gas line, Kenner noted.

“New Road is a high-traffic area, and we’ve had a lot of residents having to take detours through residential neighborhoods which has sometimes caused great concern due to speeding,” said Lisa Oles, chairwoman of the Austintown trustees.

“The opening of New Road will be a lot more convenient and safer for the residents,” Oles said Monday.

In other business, the county commissioners awarded Thursday the $79,252 Ellsworth Road surface treatment project to Hughes Construction of Suffield. The work will be performed between U.S. Route 224 and Bailey Road in Ellsworth Township.

Traffic will be maintained during this project.