The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
PROJECTS TO BEGIN
Road work starting this spring
Orange barrels will sprout soon to warn drivers of road construction projects around Lorain County.
“We’ve got a lot of road work going on in 2017,” said Joseph Reitz, public works director for Avon Lake. That city is not alone. Lorain, Elyria, Avon, Amherst, Sheffield Village, Vermilion, Lorain County and the Ohio Department of Transportation all have lists of repair projects.
Among the notable projects are U.S. 6 in Lorain, the Interstate 90 bridges over state Route 57 in Elyria and the widening of Center Ridge Road in North Ridgeville, which may be Lorain County’s orange barrel
“we’ve got a lot of road work going on in 2017.”
— Joseph Reitz, public works director for Avon Lake.
capital this year.
The city will have six major projects going on in 2017, said Mayor G. David Gillock.
Work to widen Lear Nagle Road, a $12.7 million project, was scheduled to resume April 5 and will be finished this year.
It is going from two lanes to three from Lorain Road, which is state Route 10, to Center Ridge Road, which also is U.S. 20.
The intersections of Lear Nagle Road with Lorain Road and Chestnut Ridge Road also will be widened to improve safety and reduce congestion, according to city plans.
That project is ahead of schedule, with Terrace Construction returning this spring to replace the intersection of Chestnut Ridge Road and Lear Nagle Road, Gillock said.
The company also will finish driveways, sidewalks, catch basins and general restoration of properties, he said.
Chestnut Ridge Road, from Lear Nagle Road to about 500 feet east, will be closed for 30 days starting April 17 for the installation of the new pavement, curbs, driveways and sidewalks, according to the city.
Bids will be opened in November to select a contractor for the widening of Center Ridge Road from Stoney Ridge Road to Lear Nagle Road.
The Ohio Department of Transportation will cover most of the $54 million project cost.
Construction will take place from April 2018 to October 2019, according to plans. The project includes the realignment of the Root Road and Ridgeview Boulevard intersection, new traffic lights, a 10-foot-wide multi-use path on the south side.
There also will be improvements to side streets adjacent to the road, according to city plans.
The Center Ridge Road widening project has been in the planning process since December 2003. For two years, crews have been moving utility poles and pipes, Gillock said.
“Here we are, 13 years later, and we’re actually going to build it,” he said.
The Lear-Nagle Road project first was on an Ohio Department of Transportation project list in 2004.
“So, these projects take years,” Gillock said.
Performance Lane, the road into the new Riddell Corp., is completed with a new roadway, sanitary sewer line and waterline. That project cost $1.4 million.
The Jaycox Road extension will cost about $1.76 million for a new road and water main leading back into the campus of North Ridgeville Schools. The road will have three lanes south of Center Ridge Road to the parking lot of the new building of grades three to eight.
The city will pay about $312,000 toward the project, with the rest coming from North Ridgeville Schools, Gillock said.
The roundabout at the intersection of state Route 83 and Mills Road will cost about $1.24 million, with $673,000 coming from the Ohio Public Works Commission.
North Ridgeville and Avon each will contribute about $242,360 toward the project.
The Lorain Road interchange with Interstate 480 will get new four-way traffic signals, a project estimated to cost $400,000 to $460,000, according to city figures.
Among the notable projects are U.s. 6 in Lorain, the Interstate 90 bridges over state route 57 in elyria and the widening of Center ridge road in North ridgeville, which may be Lorain County’s orange barrel capital this year.