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Mahoning Avenue road work to begin next week
By Denise Dick
By DENISE DICK
YOUNGSTOWN
Photo
Shelly and Sands of Twinsburg is the contractor for an Ohio Department of Transportation District 4 project to resurface Mahoning Avenue between Meridian Road and Interstate 680. The work begins Monday and is expected to be completed in September. The photograph was taken looking west from near the Interstate 680 entrance..
Motorists on the city’s West Side will encounter more road construction when a state project to resurface Mahoning Avenue begins next week.
The roughly $740,200 project is set to begin Monday on Mahoning between Meridian Road and Interstate 680 and be finished by September.
A minimum of one lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction during construction, said Justin Chesnic, a spokesman for Ohio Department of Transportation District 4.
The Mahoning Avenue entrance ramp to I-680 south and McKinley Avenue at Mahoning Avenue will be closed for 14 days each during construction for pavement replacement.
All detours will be posted and access to homes and businesses will be maintained.
One of the establishments within that area is Mahoning Valley Lanes.
Shannon Nesbitt, manager of the bowling alley and Strikers the restaurant/bar inside, isn’t concerned about construction having a negative effect on the business.
“If people are going to be driving slower, maybe they’ll stay,” she said, speculating that more people might be enticed to stop in at the alley or eatery. “I’d rather the roads be in better shape than they are.”
Mary Ann Smith of Austintown agrees that the road needs to be resurfaced. It’s the timing she questions.
Normally, she travels from her home to work at St. Elizabeth Health Center along I-680, exiting at state Route 193. Since that bridge has been reduced to one lane in each direction as part of another ODOT project, she’s been traveling Mahoning.
“Why couldn’t they wait until one was done before starting another one?” she asks.
Smith also is concerned about the completion date.
“I hope they’re done before YSU starts back up,” she said.
If not, the influx of students headed to school on the roadways will add to the congestion, Smith added.
The West Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County is also within the construction.
Janet Loew, director of public relations for the library, said that because the project doesn’t include closing the road, the library doesn’t expect any problems.
“The parking lot driveway is on a side street,” not on Mahoning, she said.
If as the project progress-es, issues arise that require the library to make accommodations, they’ll be address at that time, Loew said.
Kim Koocher, owner of Cat Ladies Society, a no-kill cat shelter on Mahoning, said she doesn’t know anything about the planned project. She worries, though, about how it will affect the shelter.
“It will probably wreak havoc on our move planned for later this month,” Koocher said.
The shelter plans to move at the end of July into the former Aey Electric building on Mahoning.
“We were planning on just moving the cats down the street,” Koocher said. “We’ll probably won’t be able to do that now. Cats and jackhammers really don’t work.”