WARREN, Ohio – Motorists using Niles-Warren River Road will have to adjust their travel plans starting March 27.
Citing economic growth, traffic safety and the need to control air emissions around its plant, Kimberly-Clark Corp. formally requested the permanent closure of the road, between Burton Street and Deforest Road, during a public hearing before the Trumbull County commissioners Wednesday morning.
During their meeting after the hearing, commissioners voted unanimously to vacate a section of the roadway, which is also known as county Highway 69 and Pine Avenue.
Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro led a presentation that included testimony from the Western Reserve Port Authority, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, Lake to River Economic Development and Kimberly-Clark, as well as a traffic impact study conducted by Mannik & Smith Group Inc.
No one spoke against the closure of the road during the public hearing, but representatives from the city of Warren and Howland Township both spoke favorably about the project.
J. Branch Sinkule, senior director of government relations for Kimberly-Clark, provided an update about “tremendous progress” on the project, which is currently visible from the roadway.
“We hope the community is seeing tangible signs of our commitment really happening,” Sinkle said, adding full completion of the first phase, with manufacturing ramping up to capacity, is expected to happen in 2029 and 2030.
But Sinkle said as the plant and a proposed distribution center grow, it will make an impact on the traffic in the area. To separate truck traffic and employee traffic for safe and efficient travel, Kimberly-Clark proposed two gates – one for trucks heading south of the plant and the other for employees heading north of the plant.
Sinkle said safety and security, as well as expansion plans to grow the consumer paper products manufacturer’s operations on a future mega site, necessitate the closure. Additionally, Sinkle pointed to an upcoming air permitting inspection March 31, with an Ohio EPA requirement for the company to have a fence line around its operation and monitor emissions. With roadway traffic moving through the site, this would divide the two parcels Kimberly-Clark owns and complicate the process, he added.
“If we’re not able to get this segment of the road vacated, it really compromises the opportunity for growth on the site,” Sinkle told commissioners prior to their vote.
Lyle Huffman, executive vice president of government affairs and community impact with the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said the Kimberly-Clark project will result in an $800 million manufacturing facility and at least 500 full-time jobs, with an estimated payroll of $49 million. The proposed $60 million distribution center would add at least 65 additional jobs.
“These jobs don’t stop at the plant gates,” Huffman said. “They generate demand for suppliers, logistic providers, professional services and small businesses across the Valley.”
With local trades contractors working at the site already, Huffman said there has already been an impact for 300 workers.
“Today’s vote by the Trumbull County commissioners is a forward-looking decision that supports a significant economic development project for our region,” Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, said in a statement. “We thank the commissioners for their leadership in helping move this project forward. Kimberly-Clark has been a strong corporate addition to our community, and their investment brings high-quality jobs, major infrastructure improvements and long-term economic impact to the Mahoning Valley.”
Anthony Trevena, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, said having the county, townships, state and regional agencies working on the project since 2022 has been a coordinated effort to take a former steel mill brownfield and make it a new, large available industrial site.
“[Kimberly-Clark is] giving serious consideration to hopefully announce the regional distribution center, and they still have hundreds of acres that could be developed on,” Trevena said. “So with this being vacated and now making this one giant, contiguous piece of property, the sky’s the limit to the opportunity in our community.”
Rerouting Traffic
DeChristofaro went over the road closure’s travel impact in both distance and driving times. He also talked about the building of a new connector road between state Routes 169 and 45, a $17 million project that will be completed in three phases.
“It may take a few years for it to get completed, before it is open for traffic, but we’re only talking a few years,” he said. “And I think Kimberly-Clark is talking many decades. I think it’s going to be a benefit to everybody in Trumbull County.”
DeChristofaro said the road project will be paid for through the All Ohio Futures Fund, Ohio Department of Development grants. The final section, which will include a bridge over the Mahoning River, will start in 2028 and be completed in 2029. But DeChristofaro said the preliminary work has already begun. The bridge will be the only one across the river between state Route 442 in Warren and Salt Springs Road in Niles.
DeChristofaro said the time difference for motorists will not be significant because it will cut out traffic congestion in small communities. Additionally, DeChristofaro said the road will be wider and in better condition than the current roads.
Shea MacMillan, a Niles resident who worked as an economic developer with the Regional Chamber, said he is now a real estate agent for a commercial brokerage and is involved with 30 acres of industrial land near the Kimberly-Clark site. He said the new connector will make a difference for other companies coming to the region because when companies are planning truck routes, they loathe creating a disruption through central business districts.
Nancy Lyon-Stadler, a transportation planning sector leader with Mannik & Smith Group Inc., presented a report about traffic patterns at intersections after the closure. The most notable one intersection of state Route 169 in Niles may require left turn lanes, but otherwise she said all the intersections will not be significantly impacted.
Commissioners thanked Kimberly-Clark for working with the local agencies to be transparent and helping to bring jobs to the area.