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Officials reject bids for Western Reserve road project
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mahoning County commissioners have rejected bids for the widening of Western Reserve Road between Tippecanoe Road and state Route 46 and re-advertised the job.
The commissioners took the action Wednesday because all seven bids came in more than 10 percent above the estimate of $3,625,615, which was provided by Thomas Fok & Associates, a consultant to the county engineer’s office.
The new bid-opening time will be 2:30 p.m. May 18 in the county purchasing department.
“We’re hoping to stem some of the traffic flow problems that we have out there” due to increased development, said John A. McNally IV, chairman of the county commissioners.
Many motorists now use Western Reserve Road to avoid heavy traffic on U.S. Route 224, he said. “It is not just a country road any longer,” McNally added.
Trees already have been cut down and new boundary stakes installed along the road in preparation for construction.
The construction is expected to begin in mid-July and take a year to compete, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy county engineer. The rebidding has delayed the start of construction by about 30 days, she said.
The county already has acquired all of the land it needs for the project, Kenner said.
Some eminent domain lawsuits the county filed against landowners along the road have been settled and others are in the process of settlement concerning compensation for the land being taken, Kenner said.
“We are doing our best to work with the property owners to reach amicable settlements with all of them,” Kenner said.
The next phase of the Western Reserve Road widening project will be from state Route 46 to state Route 62 and is estimated to cost $4,097,348. That price estimate is subject to change based on fluctuations in oil prices, Kenner said.
That job is to be advertised in late fall or early winter, with work beginning next spring and taking a year to complete, Kenner said.
The widening projects, designed to make the two-lane road safer, are 80 percent federally funded and 20 percent locally funded.
The portions to be widened are now 18 to 20 feet wide with no shoulders. They’ll be widened to 32 feet, including 4-foot paved shoulders on both sides.
Left turning lanes will be added at the Route 46 intersection.
Because the project involves culvert replacements and regrading of portions of the road to improve sight distances for motorists, some sections of the road will have to be closed to through traffic for several days at a time, Kenner said.
The official average daily vehicle count reported by the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments for the portions of Western Reserve Road to be widened was 6,288 last year, compared with 4,954 in 2000.
Now a major east-west thoroughfare, the road forms the boundary between Canfield Township on its north side and Beaver and Green townships on its south side.