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State, local officials gather to break ground on I-80 project
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
State and local officials gathered Tuesday at Cerni Motors Sales Inc., 5751 Cerni Place, to celebrate the start of an Interstate 80 widening project.
Many of them recalled talking about the same project – at the same place – in December 2012 when Republican Gov. John Kasich made the Austintown business one of several stops that day to announce a road-project initiative.
Kasich talked about more funding for road projects in the northern part of the state, specifically widening I-80 from two lanes in each direction to three from Austintown Township through Weathersfield and Liberty townships and to the city of Girard.
Ohio Department of Transportation officials thanked Kasich for his Jobs and Transportation Plan, which moved the start date on the project from 2027 to now.
“It would advance projects like this that have been talked about for 20 years. Well, let me tell you all, the plan is working,” said James Barna, ODOT assistant director for transportation policy and chief engineer.
The six-mile stretch of I-80 project area has “two to three times the average crash rate for similar facilities across the state of Ohio, so we intend to bring that crash data back down by adding this third lane in each direction,” Barna said.
“Any time they can make the roadways safer engineering, it’s definitetly a good thing,” said Lt. Nakia Hendrix, commander of the Canfield barracks of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. He said there will be “strict enforcement” in the construction zones.
Shelly and Sands of Akron is the contractor on the $108.4 million project to widen the interstate from four lanes to six lanes from the I-80/state Route 11/state Route 46 interchange in Austintown to the state Route 193/Belmont Avenue interchange in Trumbull County.
Six bridges will be replaced and widened. There is a $20 million construction cost for two of those bridges, the 750-foot-long eastbound and westbound bridges just west of U.S. Route 422 that span the Norfolk Southern and Ohio Central railroad lines.
Officials said that between 56,000 and 64,000 vehicles travel the portion of I-80 daily and about 30 percent of that traffic is from trucks.
John Cerni, owner of Cerni Motors, talked about the impact of being located near the Austintown interchange of two state routes and I-80. He said the family business moved to the heavily traveled area 20 years ago.
“That makes this area quite desirable for manufacturers,” he said of the halfway point between New York and Chicago.
Project officials say that two lanes of traffic will be maintained in each direction during peak travel times on I-80. Ramp closures will occur throughout the project, ranging from 15 days to 435 days, during the project expected to be finished by July 2018.
“The people in Austintown are going to have to just sit back a little bit because there’s going to be a slight inconvenience in the process of this happening, but when the project is open they’ll understand how important it is,” said Ken Carano, Austintown trustee.
Girard Mayor James Melfi said the project will benefit the safety of the public and the local economy as well as improve the roadway.
“Improving the roadway there is going to improve access to the existing businesses and give us an opportunity to speak of the future of development, economic development,” said James Melfi, Girard mayor. “It’s a great day. And it’s $100 million and that doesn’t come around every day.”
He said of the safety aspect: “All you have to do is travel the road to know that the improvements are going to be great to the traveling public.”
Prep work, including nightly lane work to “beef up” the shoulders for traffic to be diverted onto the shoulder and right lane while work is done on the left lane, began a few weeks ago.