By LISA NICELY
nicely@crescent-news.com
PAULDING -- Work crews are already out on the Paulding County roadways as several million dollars in road projects kick off for the construction season.
The county engineer's office has more than $1 million in projects in the works for this year including the replacement of seven bridges and resurfacing. Meanwhile, the state has more than $147,119,583 in road projects underway. That total includes the overall cost for the U.S. 24 Fort to Port improvement project in the county, which is in its third year of construction at a price tag of $144,536,555.
County Engineer Travis McGarvey said that the county's bridge projects are being funded, in part, by Ohio Public Works monies. It will cost approximately a half-million dollars to replace six bridges -- all of which have reduced weight limits.
Those bridges include work underway on the Emerald Township Road 218 bridge, west of County Road 143.
"We've got the old structure ripped out there," said McGarvey. "We've been delayed because of the rain a bit."
Other projects include bridges on Emerald Road, next to the new water plant in Paulding; Harrison Township Road 33, between Township Road 96 and County Road 106; County Road 87, between Benton Township Road 48 and County Road 60; and two on County Road 179, one south of Brown Township Road 148 and the other between Township Road 148 and County Road 166.
Another bridge replacement will be on County Road 115, north of Ohio 111. That replacement has been bid out and will cost $351,000, which will be funded by federal highway dollars.Contractor will start work in the next month.
McGarvey said his department also plans to resurface 10-12 miles of roadway at an approximate cost of $950,000. If more money becomes available via grants or other opportunities, it is possible more roads will be resurfaced.
"It depends on funds," said McGarvey. "Some townships have Ohio Public Works funds to do paving. We haven't secured a grant for ours yet. Paving doesn't get done until mid-summer so we have to try to determine our needs."
McGarvey said any culvert work will be done with the resurfacing.
"The only other repairs we're looking at is the haul roads for the U.S. 24 project and smaller drainage projects such as catch basin replacements," said McGarvey. "The state will provide funding for those."
Speaking of U.S. 24, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) will be finishing the Paulding portion of the highway improvement project, which runs from the Indiana state line to Toledo, this fall.
Sections of the existing highway will be abandoned and turned over to the county once the new route opens.
The state will be repaving the current U.S. 24 in 2010 instead of this year.
"We don't want to do the work with trucks still on it, so we will abandon it, then come back and do work on it," said Kirk Slusher, planning and program administrator with ODOT District One.
"We will have some fairly significant projects on what will be old U.S. 24. We plan on repaving," said Slusher. "We will also be doing some minor intersection improvements on old U.S. 24 and U.S. 127. The other fairly significant project will be reconstructing U.S. 24 in the village of Antwerp from Ohio 49 to the first park drive entrance. Those projects will be done next year in summer construction."
Other ODOT projects this year will include resurfacing Ohio 114 from U.S. 127 to the Indiana state line. That will begin this spring and last 60 days. The project cost is $1,378,028.
Another project in the works is resurfacing Ohio 49 from the south line of Payne to U.S. 30 in Van Wert. That is to begin this summer and cost $854,000. Construction should last 60 days. The project is being funded with American Recover and Reinvestment Act funds.