The Main Street Bridge Replacement project will impact end-of-school bus routes, according to Marysville officials.
Marysville Public Service Committee members heard an update about the bridge replacement project at its Tuesday night meeting. According to City Engineer Jeremy Hoyt, the city is expecting the project to begin in March of next year.
The work being done to the bridge currently is part of the project, but sometime next year, the Ohio Department of Transportation will close the bridge for 120 days.
Public Service Director Mike Andrako noted since it would be a four-month closure, the work wouldn’t be able to completely avoid conflict with the school year. He said if that work starts in March, the project should be done by the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
“I think it’s better to be at the end of the school year than the start of the school year,” said committee member J.R. Rausch. “But again, we’re at their timeframe, not ours.”
According to a fact sheet posted on the city’s website, the detour route will go from Stocksdale Drive down Maple Street to Elwood Avenue.
Committee member Tracy Richardson expressed concern that the detour might back up the Elwood Avenue and Maple Street intersection more than it already is.
“It can be problematic at certain times of the day now,” she said. “It already backs up quite a bit.”
Andrako noted that the reason it’s as busy as it is now comes from traffic going onto Elwood Avenue into town. If the Main Street bridge is closed, it will cut down the amount of traffic on that street.
“I’m not concerned,” he said.
In another update, Memorial Health is donating its right of way and temporary easement at the intersection of Mill Wood Boulevard and Route 31 for the city’s Route 31 widening project.
“We’d be responsible for restoration, like they would anywhere else,” Hoyt said.
Hoyt said the city had been in talks with Memorial Health for some time. The land includes room for a traffic signal as part of the project.
Richardson said in driving that road on a daily basis, it’s hard for her to figure out how the city can widen the road. She said the width of the current road seems too tight.
Hoyt said with the new right of way, there will be “plenty” of room for the project.
Public Service Director Mike Andrako agreed.
“There’s a lot of space here we can use to widen,” Andrako said.
Hoyt also gave the committee an update about the Innovation Park work.
The city is in the midst of phase one of the project, developing the northwestern-most portion of the land. He said work is progressing nicely.
“All the public utilities are complete,” Hoyt said.
That includes sanitary and storm sewer, as well as water lines. The sanitary sewer goes along the new Innovation Way until it’s behind the Sumitomo building.
“Everything else pretty much makes it to the middle of the back (of the property),” he said.
He said the first phase of the project is slated to wrap up by the end of the year.