The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Road responsibilities vary throughout Lorain County
When Lorain County residents get tired of bumpy streets, it is not too difficult to figure out who is responsible for fixing it.
Within the 495 square miles of Lorain County are hundreds of miles of roads and streets.
Different offices and agencies have responsibility for different stretches of roads around the communities of Lorain County, said a number of area elected officials and staff members who work with the projects.
The eastern communities of Avon Lake, Avon and North Ridgeville will see some unique collaborations this year.
Avon-North Ridgeville
There is a new roundabout intersection planned for Route 83 and Mills Road on the line between Avon and North Ridgeville.
The roundabout 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, according to figures from North Ridgeville.
The project will go out to bid in May, and the intersection of Mills Road and Route 83 will close in August or September for the construction.
Avon Mayor Bryan Jensen recalled taking his seat on City Council more than 11 years ago. “Everybody was always like, you’ve got to get 83 and Mills Road fixed,” he said.
Traffic heading southbound on Route 83 backs up behind vehicles, especially semi trucks, waiting to turn left from Route 83 onto Mills Road, Jensen said.
For years officials thought turn lanes would be the answer, he said.
However, the roundabout reduces stopping due to traffic lights. It also tends to improve safety because collisions are more likely to happen on sides of cars and trucks, instead of having head-on crashes, Jensen said.
“Once everybody gets used to it, everybody seems to like the idea of no traffic light there,” Jensen said, adding that as long as cars continue to roll through, no one will have trouble negotiating the roundabout.
That includes tractortrailers because the roundabout will be built large enough for large trucks to go through, Jensen said.
Avon Lake-Avon
Avon Lake will spend about $1.3 million to upgrade the intersection of Krebs and Lear roads. That intersection sits just north of the city line between Avon Lake and Avon.
The improvements will include turn lanes to alleviate traffic congestion. The intersection of Krebs and Lear roads is north of the Interstate 90 interchange with Nagel Road in Avon; the same road becomes Lear Road when it crosses the Avon Lake city line of the railroad tracks north of the highway.
“That really gets backed up at rush hour, as you can expect,” said Avon Lake Mayor Greg Zilka.
The lanes will remain open during construction, but the mayor was blunt about the effect when crews are building it.
“It’s going to be very frustrating and inconvenient for people,” Zilka said.
Local drivers should be patient or consider finding other ways to get to I-90, he said.
ODOT help for cities
As for other roads, the Ohio Department of Transportation maintains all interstate highways. For example, in Elyria, Interstate 90 runs through the city and ODOT maintains it.
ODOT also maintains U.S. and state routes outside of cities.
The cities in Lorain County generally are responsible for all roads within them, including state and U.S. routes.
For example, Route 57 runs through Elyria, so the city of Elyria is responsible for it, said City Engineer Timothy Ujvari.
“Unfortunately, 57, this whole corridor, from the north (corporation) limit to the south (corporation) limit, is all maintained by the city, at a very high expense to the city,” he said.
ODOT does assist cities with its urban paving program within city limits, said ODOT spokeswoman
Crystal Neelon.
In those instances, ODOT usually would pay 80 percent of the project cost, with the city covering 20 percent, Neelon said.
In recent years ODOT oversaw the resurfacing of Route 611 and Route 57 in Lorain. This year the state agency is planning the resurfacing of Route 6 in Lorain.
Lorain City Hall is grateful for the help, said city Deputy Director of Engineering Daniel Rodriguez.
For example, the Route 6 project has an estimated cost of more than $3.17 million, according to ODOT. If the city of Lorain had to pay for it, that project would be the only one the city could afford for two or three years, Rodriguez said.
County roads
Outside the cities, Lorain County Engineer Ken Carney’s office maintains more than 269 miles of county highways, said Bob Klaiber, the assistant county engineer.
There are more than 327 miles of township roads and streets. In townships, generally streets in new subdivisions become township highways once a developer dedicates the streets as public streets, Klaiber said.
On paper, an easy way to tell who is responsible is to look at the color of the lines on the Highway Map of Lorain County, Klaiber
said. The map is published by the Lorain County Engineer’s Office and Lorain County commission and is available for free at a number of county government offices.
The map differentiates among roadways ranging from the Ohio Turnpike to “minor” roads and private roads. County roads are blue lines, while township roads are gray lines, Klaiber said.
Klaiber used the example of East River Road. Residents may think of it as an Elyria street, and it is an Elyria street from Broad Street to the city line with Carlisle Township.
Heading south, East River Road is a county road from the city-township line to Chestnut Ridge Road in Carlisle Township. Then it becomes a township road for the stretch from Chestnut Ridge Road to Dewhurst Road.
Moving from the map to the street, in many places there are visible signs at the side of the road to indicate where county, city or township maintenance begins or ends, Klaiber said.
The county engineer is responsible for bridges 10 feet long or longer on township roads, and sometimes in cities, Klaiber said.
For example, the Lorain County Engineer’s Office maintains the Sugar Ridge Road bridge in North Ridgeville and the East 31st Street bridge over the Black River in Lorain, he said.