Road crews team up for joint paving on Vine

Eastlake has the machinery and Willowick has the manpower, so the road crews from both cities are teaming up to pave portions of Vine Street.

According to Todd Shannon, Willowick road crew foreman, crews will start Sept. 13 at East 328th Street off Vine Street and proceed to pave four areas on Vine Street.

The paving will consist of 200- to 400-foot sections in front of the Paramount Building at 31815 Vine St., The Bureau of Motor Vehicles at 31517 Vine St., The Willowick Service Department at 31230 Vine St. and USA Installation at 31920 Vine St.

According to Willowick Mayor Richard Regovich, motorists can expect short traffic delays probably lasting no longer than 15 minutes during the times crews are working in the area. Some residents may not have access to their driveways during that brief time.

The mayor anticipates all the work to be completed Sept. 14.

“We are focusing on the worst of the worst spots right now,” Shannon said. “If we had the ability and the money we would do more, but now we are trying to take care of the main area with the most potholes.”

“The cost savings to each city is dramatic,” Regovich said. “We both pulled from our service

departments.”

According to the mayor, the actual cost savings is difficult to track because the city didn’t go out for quotes on this project. However when they tried teaming the two roads crews on a smaller project several years ago the savings were significant.

The crews laid two long rollout patches in front of Willowick City Hall two years ago and the overlay held up well and was done for under $5,000. The quote the city received for the project was $100,000.

“Dennis (Morley, Eastlake mayor) and I both get complaints all the time on how bad (Vine Street) is,” Regovich said. “We send our crews out and they will cold patch it in the winter time and the plows will go by and pull that little patch up. Now we are going to do like 400 feet of overlay over all the bad stuff and it will make it easier on our

plows, it will make it easier for people to drive, and make a drastic difference in the roads.”

Regovich also noted that a lot of the savings will be in the road crews not having to go out in the winter time to repeatedly cold patch the potholes in these areas.

The mayor equated the layover patching the city is doing to a band-aid to get them through to 2020 when the whole road is scheduled to be redone.

Regovich also pointed out that any money spent on this project will be credited back to them when they do the scheduled roadwork in 2020.

“Our portion, what we have to match, is usually 80/20 with Ohio Department of Transportation but this will count towards that 20 percent,” Regovich said. “We can pay it and just live with it for three years until it gets done and keep patching it or we can do these long patches now and everyone gets to benefit for three years driving on a better road. It’s easier

on our plow equipment and the salt doesn’t get down into the cracks. So the benefit of this is huge and its a win-win for both cities.”

“We will continue to work together as cities to do things that we are able utilizing our workforce and materials,” said Morley whose city is getting assisting with striping and crack sealing from Willowick.

What Regovich found most exciting about the joint venture is that the idea came from his road crew.

“We sat down with our guys and said what can we do to fix this and it was their idea,” he said. “They came to me and said OK we can do this, Eastlake has this equipment so let me talk to the guy in Eastlake,” Regovich said. “It was at that level that they were able to work it out. So I’m like yeah lets go do it. That’s a great idea.”

The mayor noted that the cities have done it like this in little pieces before. But now, he is hopeful they will continue to do this throughout.