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Meridian Road could see reconstruction in 2016
By Kalea Hall
AUSTINTOWN
It is no secret Meridian Road is in need of some pavement love.
The hope is by next year a portion of the bumpy, pothole-riddled and uneven road will get the attention it desperately needs.
Mahoning County and Youngs-town plan to apply for funds from the Ohio Public Works Commission to help pay for one phase of the project this year. If they receive those funds, the paving project would start in the summer of 2016 or later that year.
“These are legacy jobs, and they take a lot of time to develop,” said county Engineer Patrick T. Ginnetti.
Since Ginnetti became engineer nearly three years ago, Meridian Road has been one of his top priorities. It also has been a priority for the city since it maintains Meridian Road from north of Mahoning Avenue to the county line. The county maintains Meridian from Mahoning Avenue south to the Cornersburg area.
Last year, the county commissioners approved a $32,872 agreement with MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown for a preliminary engineering study, according to Vindicator files. The study is nearly complete with just the funding and financing portion remaining, Ginnetti said.
This project is more than repaving, however; it includes reconstruction of most of the road, and comes with a hefty cost — an estimated $10 million to $12 million.
“It concerns me to rush through the project,” Ginnetti said. “The key to all of this is funding.”
The state and federal governments would fund the job along with a local share.
The county’s study broke down the Meridian Road project in three phases:
Phase one: County line to Interstate 680, reconstruction, but not as serious as the second phase.
Phase two: I-680 to Mahoning Avenue, major reconstruction of the lanes. This part will be done first because of the road’s deplorable condition.
Phase three: Mahoning Avenue to Cornersburg, mostly a mill-and-fill project with some storm-sewer repair and some base repairs.
Charles Shasho, Youngs-town’s deputy director of public works, says it seems the road has too much subsurface drainage and that has caused a lot of its problems.
“The entire area was widened in the 1970s,” Shasho said. “When it was widened, they could have done a better job with the subsurface drainage.”
The city also is looking at some sewer improvements and waterline updates in addition to the project phases.
“We are hopeful we can get the funding,” Shasho said. “We understand everyone’s frustrations.”
The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s Grow Mahoning Valley committee, which promotes economic development with completion of road work and other projects, also saw the need for the road to be repaired.
The chamber asked local businesses to identify any issues they have with the road.
“We didn’t presume they had any issues, but it turns out most of them did,” said Guy Coviello, the chamber’s vice president of government affairs and media. “We will present those where and when appropriate to the state and federal sources to show that there is an economic consequence to the road being in the condition it is in.”
Jim Miketa, owner of Ideal Store Fixtures, 202 N. Meridian Road, deals with the problems of the road firsthand and has so for the past 19 years since his business has been in that location.
He has customers all over the country who purchase his fixtures. Often, the drivers have to haul glass and they avoid the road as much as possible. Instead of driving down to the I-680 on-ramp on Meridian, drivers shoot down to Mahoning Avenue.
“With the interstate system now, the road is not substantial enough to carry the truck traffic,” Miketa said.
The county’s portion of Meridian was last repaved in 2004, and the road was last reconstructed more than 20 years ago, Ginnetti said.
Miketa would like to see a complete road reconstruction because to him repaving is just “putting icing on a burnt cake.”
“They need to get back down to the superstructure,” he said. “If the true interest of the Valley is to develop Meridian Road, then start with the road and put a good road down.”
GBS, a business solutions company with customers throughout the U.S., is the first business seen when coming off the I-680 exit.
“[Our customers’] impression of GBS is what they see coming off of 680,” said Jennifer Ostapiak, human-resource manager for GBS. “It is disheartening because we love this city.”
Don Fuchs, part owner of the steel-processing company Black Lion Products, 3710 Henricks Road, said, “We do have common carriers that come in and out of the building, and we have heard multiple comments on the safety of the road.”