The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
ODOT gives update on bridge project
Ohio Department of Transportation is confident with how the project is coming along
Ohio Department of Transportation Deputy Director Myron S. Pakush said he is confident of how the Vrooman Road bridge project is going.
“At least someone feels confident,” Lake County Commissioner Daniel P. Troy quipped.
Troy expressed frustration about the glacial pace of the project that was first commissioned in 2009.
“We’re rapidly approaching 2018,” Troy said. “I use the term ‘is it time for us to get out of Vietnam?’ because I start to hear the same things. ‘There’s light at the end of the tunnel, this thing’s going to get out there and get built next year’ and we’ve been hearing this for like eight, nine years now.”
Pakush was at the Sept. 28 commissioners meeting to give an update on the state of the project. ODOT is managing the high-level bridge replacement and roadway improvement project over the Grand River in Leroy and Perry townships after the county reached a settlement with former project manager the Ruhlin Co.
Troy asked if the scope of the project could still be justified.
“I don’t know what the total price tag on this project is going to be — I think it’s going to end up being over $30 million — and I have to ask does the costbenefit ratio test, is it met here?”
Pakush said the “purpose and need” still stands.
“I’ve been at this type of work at ODOT for 25 years, this is really the most complicated project I’ve ever been involved in,” Pakush said. “All your environmental constraints here, you don’t get involved in that very much.”
They’ve had to go through a lot of hoops, Pakush said, but they’re getting to the last items. All the construction documents have been filed with Columbus and they have the preliminary permit needed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. What they’re waiting for now is an easement from the United State Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. He said they’re working with Lake Metroparks on that.
Pakush said they hope to get that easement this year. After they get that finalized they can start the bidding process.
“Once we figure out the USDA part, we feel pretty good that we’ll be ready,” he said. “We’re comfortable with the design plans.”
Obtaining permits has been a problem with the project in the past. Ruhlin started work on the project in March of 2015, but progress was halted just three months later as the county awaited the necessary environmental permits to proceed in an area involving wetlands and a scenic river. Ruhlin sued the county or breach of contract and negligence, alleging that the Engineer’s Office did not heed its warnings to apply for the permits at least a year before work was to begin. The two sides would eventually settle with ODOT taking over.
Bidding will be a twomonth process and Pakush said he thinks construction can start no later than March 2018.
Steel girders were already manufactured for the project under the previous contract. With those made, the construction of the project could move more quickly.
“They’re sitting on the ground waiting for delivery,” Pakush said. “That’s the good part about this new contract, we don’t have to wait for the manufacturing.”
Construction is expected to take two years and the new bridge could be open by the end of 2019, a decade after the project was first commissioned.
A new bridge is being built because the old bridge (replaced with a temporary bridge) “flooded over quite a bit,” Troy said. It also had to be severely restricted for weight limits he added.
“There was a need for a new bridge out there,” he said. “There’s been argumentation over there years to what scope that bridge should be. Nobody disagrees that a new bridge is needed to cross the Grand River on Vrooman Road.”
Commissioner Jerry Cirino asked if Pakush would come back before the commissioners in December for another update, which he agreed to.