Monday, June 27, 2016
By Bruce Walton
BOARDMAN
The township has finished construction of its new salt barn, located on the same property as the township government center at 8299 Market St.
The construction ended June 13, said Larry Wilson, township road department superintendent.
Sites Builders, a construction company based in the Cleveland area, had the lowest bid for the job, $272,775, and the company completed construction in about a month and a half.
Wilson said the previous 35-year-old structure was in need of replacement because of its age and safety concerns. The township authorized the new construction in December 2015.
“There’s no shame for it,” he said. “It served its purpose very well for us for years, and it just came to a point where it was deteriorating so much that it became a safety factor for the guys that worked in there. So we decided to tear it down and replace it.”
Wilson said the barn was in danger of falling on workers after decades of salt damage and moisture,
The barn was built entirely from the ground up, replacing the old barn with a new blacktop pad, concrete walls increased to 6 feet in height from 4 feet of the old barn; and wooden roofing.
Wilson said he hopes this salt barn will last as long as the old one. The barn will be able to hold approximately 3,000 tons of salt. The township maintains 144 miles of road that include more than 500 streets and 164 culs-de-sac, according to the township website. Currently, the construction fence is still up, but once it’s removed, salt will be transported into the new barn.