County to ask ODOT to help fix Meander-area roads

By Peter H. Milliken

ODOT will do spot repairs but won’t resurface entire roads, a spokesman says.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County commissioners approved a resolution asking the Ohio Department of Transportation to pay for repairs to roads traveled by heavy- construction vehicles engaged in the Interstate 80 Meander Reservoir bridge-widening project.

The commissioners gave their approval Thursday in support of requests by the county engineer’s office and Austintown and Jackson township trustees that ODOT repair portions of Lipkey, Silica, Turner and Ohltown roads. All four are county roads.

ODOT sponsored the recently completed widening of the bridges that carry I-80 over the reservoir, the area’s primary domestic water source.

“We will fix the damage caused by construction vehicles,” said Justin Chesnic, an ODOT public information specialist. “We will be doing some spot repairs. ... We’re not going to resurface the whole road,” he said, adding that the work would be done next month.

ODOT can determine how much damage construction vehicles did because, before work begins on projects such as this one, ODOT documents the condition of the intended haul roads by videotape, Chesnic said.

The county engineer’s office is seeking repair of damage caused by construction vehicles, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy county engineer. In some cases, the whole road width needs to be resurfaced, and in other cases, only one lane needs to be resurfaced, she said.

In some cases, in which construction-vehicle traffic worsened current cracks, a patching job would not be an adequate repair, she said.

“We can’t let these roads winter over because the potholes will be horrendous, and the people are getting very angry. We’ve gotten a lot of angry phone calls” from area residents about the condition of the roads, Kenner told the commissioners.

ODOT allowed these roads to be used as construction-haul roads without the permission of the county engineer’s office, she added.

“The extent of that damage is considerable,” said Olin E. Harkleroad, chairman of the Jackson Township trustees. “The residents have to put up with these bad roads, and there are safety and liability issues here.” The county engineer’s office would be unfairly burdened if it had to make the repairs, and Ohio law says the responsibility for the repairs lies with ODOT, he told the commissioners.

In other action, the commissioners awarded a $15,675 contract to Minchin’s Buy Right Carpet of Struthers to furnish and install carpet in the clerk of courts office in the county courthouse to replace worn 20-year-old carpeting that has been repaired with duct tape.

milliken@vindy.com