The Ohio Department of Transportation has another full slate of summer road construction projects; spending $150 million in Mahoning County, and another $30 million in Trumbull.
They're in the final year of the four year Interstate 80-Meander Reservoir Bridge Project. The final phase of that project will be to re-pave and pour concrete on the bridge over Meander Reservoir. "You have two wide open lanes. You got wide shoulders if, say someone's broken down on that bridge, they can get off to the side. Whereas in the past, a narrow two-lane bridge, you had to tie up one lane, so that's a real big benefit out here. It's going to help traffic flow much better through the area," says Justin Chesnic/ Public Information Specialist with ODOT District 4.
"Then we're going to be doing the westbound pavement as well, from the west side of the reservoir all the way to the Ohio Turnpike. That's expected to be completed in about October of 2009, and that will wrap up that $90 million job," adds Chesnic.
ODOT starts a nearly seven million dollar smooth over of I-680 this summer. "We're going to resurface 680. We're going to do some drainage and some median work there, as well. That's going to be from State Route 193 all the way down to 224," says Chesnic.
Who could forget the headaches around 224 and Tippecanoe last year? You can expect those delays to start a little bit further east this summer, as they shut down a few lanes to do the work on the 224 bridge over Mill Creek. Chesnic says, "We're going to have two lanes in the eastbound direction going through, and one lane in the westbound direction, so motorists will still be able to get through, and then once we get one side of the bridge done, we'll switch over to the other side."
Further east on 224, the plan is to widen and add turning lanes in the busy shopping areas around South Avenue. Chesnic says, "We're going to have right turn lanes in both directions. Then we're going to have some dual left turn lanes added from 224 to South Avenue, which will really improve the traffic flow in that area."
Chesnic says the best thing drivers can do is slow down through the construction zones.
