WARREN, Ohio – Construction should begin in early 2027 on the first phase of a new access road to support Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s Trumbull County plant, a Western Reserve Port Authority official said.
Randy Partika, director of engineering and construction for the port authority, updated members of the Warren-Howland-Warren Joint Economic Development District Board on the project at their meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Design work on the 2.6-mile project, intended to connect the area south of Kimberly-Clark’s $800 million plant now under construction to state Route 45, is about 30% complete, Partika said.
The project is being done in three phases, Partika said. The first phase, widening Lane West Road, is expected to begin in early 2027 and conclude during the calendar year. The second phase, an upgrade to Burnett Road East, will start later in the year and carry over into 2028.
The third phase, a new roadway including construction of a bridge over the Mahoning River connecting to Pine Avenue Extension, should begin in early 2028 and extend through 2029. “Hopefully, by August, September of ’29, the roadway will be open,” he said.
Board member Mike Keys, community development director for the city of Warren, which manages income taxes within the JEDD on behalf of its member communities, reported the JEDD’s checking account balance at $258,072. Tax collections for the second quarter totaled $312,640, about triple what had been estimated based on first-quarter collections.
Collections within the JEDD, which includes portions of the city of Warren, Warren Township and Howland Township, total $436,679 year-to-date.
“The check for the second quarter is what we estimated to get for the entire year,” said Nic Coggins, assistant director and director of economic development for the Trumbull County Planning Commission and chairman of the JEDD board.
Under terms of its agreement with the Ohio Department of Development’s All Ohio Future Fund, which in April 2025 awarded $17.2 million in grants and loans for roadway and other infrastructure improvements to support the Kimberly-Clark project, the JEDD is required to hold three years’ worth of loan installments – $323,260 per year, to be repaid beginning in December 2030 – in reserve.
“Things are moving forward, and it’s going to put us in a nice position as far as our obligations through the agreement to back the All Ohio Future Fund loan, and hopefully get us in a position so that we can start help funding some other projects,” Coggins said.
Within three months, more than 50% of the design work will be complete, and those involved will have a “good grasp on a better construction estimate,” Partika predicted. Some modifications have been made since the road project was submitted two years ago, and construction costs have risen, he pointed out.
“We hope to stay on a budget, but you don’t know what you don’t know on the magnitude of this,” said Anthony Trevena, WRPA executive director.
Coggins said he already has received inquiries about providing JEDD funds to support other projects potentially connected to the district, should funds be available. He recommended to board members that they take up formalizing an application for such requests at the next JEDD board meeting, scheduled for Oct. 20.