Road projects in the works throughout township

Concord Township will spend an estimated $1.7 million this year on upkeep, repair and maintenance for the township’s roadways in the subdivisions of Far Hill, Creekview Park and Quail Hollow.

Phase Three of the Far Hill project which involves the replacement of 9,110 square yards of road on Cristian and Jason avenues at an estimated cost of $1,260,000 has been bid out.

Work is scheduled to begin April 15, and the project is expected to take 91 days to complete.

“If there is a week of wash-out rain, that can always postpone things,” township Trustee Paul Malchesky said. “We hope that will all be done by the end of July. Certainly by the first week of August before school starts is what we are trying to accomplish.”

According to Trustee Christopher Galloway, the project shouldn’t impact traffic though residents on the street may have limited access to their driveways. The township will notify affected residents ahead of time.

In an effort to save money, the township is taking part in its first combined bid with another township for road work.

“The idea of doing that with Painesville Township is to create a big enough project so you can hopefully save some dollars for both entities by giving a contractor volumes of work therefore reducing some of your prices and making it a little more competitive,” Galloway said.

In the Creekview Park subdivision, mill and fill with chip seal liner work is estimated to cost $378,972.

The joint bid could produce a 20 percent to 30 percent savings on this project according to township Administrator Andy Rose.

The roads to be resurfaced include: Brenel Drive, Arbor Glen Place, Ashley Lane, Dawn Place, Dwayne Court, Heidi Court, Danvers Drive and Concord Pointe Court.

There currently is no scheduled start date for this project.

The bid opening is scheduled for the end of March. Trustees expect the project to be completed before school starts.

The township’s service crews will be working on the second phase of road repair in the Quail Hollow subdivision. The work will be done as weather permits and will involve replacing an estimated 1,000 square yards of concrete.

The construction should not impact the flow of traffic through the township but residents on the streets where work is to be done could experience some localized driveway interruptions while concrete is being poured. Replacement areas include Quail Hollow, Mourning Dove and Mountain Quail.

“We are spending a lot of money to improve our roads and our stormwater infrastructure,” Rose said as he discussed the township’s five-year road plan.

The township has been working to maximize the amount of money being invested in road restoration, repaving and reconstruction.

“Obviously, when you have a growing community like Concord, some of the earlier phases of subdivisions from the ‘80s and ‘90s are either past due in terms of them needing to be replaced...” Rose said. “We are putting a big emphasis on maintaining and obviously replacing a lot of the older initial growth areas of Concord. Those roads are now in need of that.”

Galloway explains that the township performs a full analysis every spring of every road in the township.

“Every road is looked at. There is an inspection done then... all the roads are ranked,” Galloway said. “We find that’s the most egalitarian way of going about doing it, doing an analysis.”

In addition to the work the township is contracting out, two service crews will also be tackling road repair projects throughout the construction season.

“There are 153 lane miles that we maintain and are in charge of,” Rose said. “When you think about how much a lane mile cost to put in and the dollars that go to maintain them, there’s a lot that goes into making sure those roads last a long time because they are expensive to replace.”