90 80
OHIO STATE EDITION
6
A Supplement to:
422
6 80 24
6
4
71
76
199 30 30 75
68
30 77
71 23 22 68
4
70 70
®
70
22 71
75
77
27
April 8 2017
22 74
50
50 25
Vol. XVIIII • No. 7
35
52
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Ohio Connection: Ed Bryden, Strongsville, OH • 1-800-810-7640
ODOT Widens SR 94 to Improve Safety, Access of Corridor By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
The city of Wadsworth is the center of a $12.4 million Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) road project that is widening a section of SR 94 (High Street) to two lanes in each direction with an added median in the center and a multi-use path. The work includes widening the highway bridge, realigning the Great Oaks Trail/Park Centre Drive intersection, the construction of corridors or alleys to reach businesses, the installation of a median along the center of SR 94, placing of additional traffic signals and a mutli-use path for pedestrian and bike traffic. The project is being funded by ODOT and the city. Karvo Paving Company started the work in last May, and while scheduled to complete the project in June 2018, the company is looking to deliver the project in November or December 2017. The goal of the project is to improve safety, access and the flow through the corridor, with commercial and residential sections. The project includes a bridge spanning Interstate 76. “Left turn crashes and angle crashes on SR 94 are being addressed by controlling access,” said Julie Cichello, ODOT’s traffic engineer. “Previous issues involved difficulty making left turns in and out of drives because of the traffic volumes. The city and residents asked for the multi-use path to be added to the project, which was added. This will allow for added room for pedestrians and cyclists. The project will increase roadway capacity and improve the flow of traffic which will allow for better mobility for through movements on SR 94. The alleys are an important part of the project to maintain access to the businesses where motorists would no longer be able to turn into off of SR 94 because of the center median being installed.” The roadway carries an average daily traffic count of 31,040 vehicles on a daily basis. The bridge, 212 ft. (64.6 m) in length, was
The goal of the project is to improve safety, access and the flow through the corridor, with commercial and residential sections.
built in 1959 to 1960. The new infrastructure was designed by GPD. Chris Brown, an ODOT engineer, noted that there were some issues to overcome. “With there being so many businesses within the project limits,” he said, “maintaining access during construction would be difficult, The widening of the bridge could not be done in one season, it had to be done in two seasons, the maintenance of traffic was difficult and there were a large number of overhead and underground utilities. The project team worked with ODOT and city officials to overcome these obstacles by having frequent meetings to coordinate the progress.” The 2016 construction season — May to December, saw continued utility relocation, drainage work south of I-76, the installing of a water line south of I-76, installation of new traffic signals, the widening of the bridge and the completion of the eastbound road section.
The 2017 construction season, which started in January, is focusing on the drainage work north of I-76, the widening of the west side of SR 94 and the widening of the west side of the SR 94 bridge over I-76. The alley work is limited to alleys 3 and 4 to improve and expand the drive off Great Oaks Trail to busineses, including Panera, Wendy’s, McDonalds and Goodyear. The 2018 work, if needed, will focus on bridge painting, concrete sealing, landscaping, final striping work and the clean up. “We worked through the winter to get ahead of schedule,” said John Chiarappa, Karvo’s project manager, “and the vast majority of the underground installation was completed. At the rate we’re going, we very well may be able to complete 100 percent by the winter of this year. There were conflicts with the overhead utilities, primarily with communications, at the beginning of the project — the relocation was behind schedule.
“This affected our utility and bridge work — at no fault to Karvo, and following discussions, ODOT and the city allowed us to work out a new sequence and work in other areas,” he said. “A job that could have been delayed and pushed into the 2018 season, because of the innovations we proposed, we ended up being ahead of schedule. All of the utilities have now been relocated and we can focus on the road work. We had a few months to plan before the work started and typically the ODOT and the contractor have a pre-construction meeting where you turn a planned schedule. Knowing the hurdles we had in front of us with the utility contractors, we expressed our concerns to ODOT early and gave them a plan and schedule ahead of time.” Chiarappa pointed out that the new schedule has avoided months of delay times, shut downs, and has reduced the cost of the project. see KARVO page 2