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County awards repaving contract
The speed and location of county engineering trucks will now be watched by GPS.
YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County commissioners have awarded an $896,371 contract to Shelly Co. of Twinsburg for repaving of a 1.1-mile section of South Avenue between Mathews Road and Presidential Drive in Boardman Township.
The job, funded in full by federal stimulus money, will begin Monday, and the contractor has 60 days to complete it. That busy section of South Avenue is five, and sometimes six, lanes wide.
At least one lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction during the project, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy county engineer.
The job involves removal of two inches of asphalt, repair of the road base, repaving and installation of new reflective pavement markings.
The commissioners also approved Thursday an $18,750 agreement with Youngstown Radio Service to install permanent global- positioning system units in 30 of the county engineer’s trucks.
The units, which will be monitored using Web-based software, will allow supervisors to determine the location of any truck to within a few feet, its speed, and whether its motor is idling or turned off. “We have a strict no-idle policy right now in order to conserve fuel,” Kenner said. “This will help us to enforce our work rules.”
The units can help the department to better serve the public by locating the nearest available salt truck to respond to a report concerning an icy road, Kenner said.
Earlier this year, the department used four temporary GPS devices experimentally in some of its vehicles.
“We found that they will help us to increase our efficiency and to be more accountable to the public, so we decided to have permanently mounted GPS units put in,” Kenner said. The new GPS units will be paid for by gasoline tax revenues.
The commissioners hired Thomas Fok & Associates of Austintown to provide $88,706 worth of engineering services for the widening of Bailey Road in North Jackson to accommodate the Republic Special Metals plant now under construction there.
The widening, which will occur next year, is being paid for by Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Public Works Commission grants and local funds.
The commissioners also approved a cooperation agreement with Weathersfield Township in Trumbull County for the local share of a 1.5-mile, $550,000 County Line Road resurfacing and base-repair project between state Route 46 and Four Mile Run Road.
Mahoning County and Weathersfield Township will each contribute $99,975 toward the project, Kenner said. The balance of the project cost is to be paid for by an Ohio Public Works Commission grant, for which Weathersfield will make the application. If the application is successful, the work will occur next year, Kenner said.
The commissioners also heard Olin E. Harkleroad, a Jackson Township trustee, say that the Ohio Department of Transportation should pay for repairs to portions of Lipkey, Silica, Turner and Ohltown roads, which he said were damaged by construction vehicles engaged in the ODOT-sponsored I-80 bridge widening project at Meander Reservoir.
“There’s quite a bit of damage done to those roads, and it’s not fair to the county engineers or the township residents to drive over those roads without getting some kind of justifiable repairs done,” Harkleroad said.
He submitted to the commissioners letters from County Engineer Richard A. Marsico, the Jackson Township trustees and Austintown Administrator Michael B. Dockry expressing the same viewpoint.