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Canfield installing traffic camera lights at 3 intersections
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Crews were in- stalling new traffic lights at U.S. Route 224 and the Village Green on Wednesday.
That intersection, state Route 46 and 224, is one of three intersections in Canfield that will be controlled by cameras instead of loop technology, said city Manager Joe Warino.
The three intersections are: Routes 224 and 46; Hillside Drive and 224; and Cardinal Drive and 224. Warino explained those are the three busiest intersections in the city.
If emergency personnel are approaching the intersection — fire, police and ambulance vehicles — the lights will pick up the sound of their sirens.
“It automatically goes into red mode on all sides and lets emergency personnel go through,” Warino said.
Before Wednesday’s work, the technology had been installed so far at the Hillside intersection with the other two to follow.
That same intersection was the scene of an accident involving a trooper from the Ohio State Highway Patrol on Aug. 26, 2014. That official was responding to a backup call from the Canfield Police Department for a person wanted on a warrant.
“It helps us get through the intersection safer and more timely,” said Rob Tieche Jr., director of emergency medical services with the Cardinal Joint Fire District. “We still have to proceed through with caution.”
Warino said the $700,000 project was 100 percent funded through the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration.
Crews have laid fiber-optic cable from the Canfield Police Department to the three intersections so that the feed can be accessed by the police to manually direct traffic instead of having an officer at that intersection.
For example, Warino pointed to heavy traffic on Cardinal Drive from Canfield High School after a Poland-Canfield rivalry game finishes.
“We can leave it on green as long as there’s no backup on 224,” Warino said.
Warino expects the project to be fully wrapped up by the end of April.
In another matter, Brent Kovacs, an ODOT spokesman, said the reconstruction and widening of Route 224 over state Route 11 will start March 23, but cautioned that is dependent on the weather. That aspect had delayed the project, and prep work for it will occur from now until it begins March 23.
“We’re still in good shape for that October completion date,” Kovacs said of the delays.
Motorists should expect various lane restrictions as prep work is done. ODOT will close the 224 westbound ramp onto Route 11 northbound for “more than likely” consecutive nights, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., for drainage installation. Those dates have yet to be set, Kovacs said.
Overall, A.P. O’Horo of Youngstown is the contractor on the estimated $6 million project, which is supposed to mirror the U.S. Route 224/Interstate 680 work in Boardman. It will include widening Raccoon Road for a dedicated left-turn lane, and a dedicated straight and dedicated right-turn lane at its intersection with 224. That includes lane restrictions from April to June.
From July to August, Raccoon Road will be closed for 30 days “just south of U.S. 224,” an ODOT brochure details. The detour will be 224 to Tippecanoe Road to Leffingwell Road during that time.
The work on Raccoon is expected to be finished before the Canfield Fair, as traffic will be diverted onto that road.
During the course of the project, 224 will be reduced to one lane of travel over Route 11. From April to August, the ramp from southbound Route 11 onto 224 will have one lane reduced during widening, which will add an additional dedicated right-turn lane.
Anna Howells, owner of Something New Florist, 4500 Boardman-Canfield Road, said ODOT workers visited businesses Tuesday. “It is quite a dilemma. I feel like the loss of business is going to be quite a big deal to us,” she said. “I hope the customers have patience and continue to shop with us, but who wants to drive through all that [construction]?”