EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio – The details of a multimillion dollar project described by one official as a “game changer” for the city’s East End were unveiled to the public Thursday.
The city was awarded a $29.7 million Rural Surface Transportation Grant in December 2023 by the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete infrastructure construction on state Route 39 from Mulberry Street to the Pennsylvania state line.
The cost of the project is nearly $37 million, with the city required to come up with a $7 million matching share.
In January, the Ohio Department of Transportation kicked in $1.9 million toward the cost of professional engineering for the project, which includes road construction, sidewalks, signage, pavement markings, pedestrian crossing, lighting and a roundabout at Park Way and Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as other infrastructure.
The city hired Korda/Nemeth Engineering Inc. of Columbus to write the application for the federal grant. The firm has also been chosen for the project’s engineering and design work.
Representatives of Korda/Nemeth and ODOT, as well as city officials, were present Thursday at a public open house at Memories, Meetings and More to explain the project, answer questions and address concerns. Residents were able to see the entire route from Mulberry Street to the state line depicted on architect renderings laid out on tables.
According to Bill Cowan, retired city planning director who was rehired in April by City Council to work part time on special projects, the city still needs to find about $7 million for its matching share before the work can begin. “But we’re going to do it,” he said.
Once all the funding is in place, plans call for breaking ground on the project in spring 2028, though engineers said the timeline could change.
When the project gets underway, one of the first steps will be acquiring right-of-ways along the stretch of highway, with as many as 180 expected to be needed, according to Steve Lucas, real estate administrator for ODOT. Of those right-of-ways, most will be temporary, Lucas said, needed to blend in existing sidewalks or driveways with new ones, for example.
The roundabout at Park Way and Pennsylvania Avenue likely will require the most permanent right-of-ways, with some retaining walls in the plans.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a lot of land owners accepting of the project,” Lucas said.
Members of Boyce Church were concerned about how any right-of-way issues might affect the church, located near a curve that is earmarked for changes. They spoke to the various representatives and were among those who left written comments in boxes sitting on the tables.
The project will be sold as a design-build instead of a design-bid-build project, meaning the design and construction will be combined into one contract, according to Dan Lorenz of ODOT.
In design-build projects, the designing firm and contractor work concurrently on the design and construction, eliminating the time necessary to contract a designer and accept bids from contractors.
Lorenz said this facilitates getting to the finish line on a project. “We need to obligate this federal money by fall of next year,” he said.
Waseem U. Khalifa, ODOT District 11 capital programs administrator, said the design-bid method allows a project to be built more efficiently and cost effectively.
Thomas Stratton, district environmental coordinator for ODOT District 11, said the area impacted by the construction project will be carefully studied to make sure everything is in compliance with environmental laws. This includes streams being checked for any threatened or endangered species, archeological sites and any potential contamination.
“Usually, when a project kicks off, we start,” Stratton said of the environmental work.
The proposed roundabout has created considerable social media feedback, but Korda/Nemeth representatives Brooks Vogel and Adam Dues said it will be a positive improvement at the intersection, with safety the foremost benefit of roundabouts.
“The roundabout will have a big impact,” Vogel said.
Pictured at top: The current intersection at Park Way and Pennsylvania Avenue will be transformed into a roundabout.