North Ridgeville Council makes $55K bet on state funding
Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram
NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Shelling out $55,000 in the hopes of bagging as much as $5 million in state funds to rebuild and improve the city’s top intersection makes sense to City Council.
After hearing a brief explanation of the pending study from Mayor Dave Gillock, who emphasized the need to act on the matter fairly quickly, City Council suspended its bylaws to approve legislation authorizing the city to spend the money for a safety study of Center Ridge Road.
“Any time we can spend $55,000 to get $5 million is a good leverage of our money,” Gillock said.
The city became aware of the funds during discussions with area Ohio Department of Transportation officials about widening Center Ridge Road.
“ODOT indicated to us at the time it had up to $5 million available to us to make improvements at our most unsafe intersections,” Gillock said.
Even though efforts on behalf of the widening project have stalled, work can continue toward obtaining ODOT funding to upgrade Center Ridge Road’s major intersection in the city, the mayor said.
Local officials knew the Center Ridge Road and state Route 83 intersection was the city’s most dangerous based on traffic data and accident reports.
Once the safety study is complete, the city can file its application for the ODOT funds, Gillock said.
Improvements could include new traffic signals, changes in traffic patterns, a lowering of Center Ridge Road to reduce its height at the intersection, additional turn lanes and longer lanes used by traffic waiting to turn left or right at intersections.
“It all depends on what the safety analysis recommends,” Gillock said.
R.E. Warner, a Westlake engineering firm that has performed similar work in North Ridgeville and is certified by ODOT, will conduct the study, Gillock said.
A study at Lorain and Root roads by the same firm a few years ago resulted in a $1 million reconstruction of that intersection that added new turn lanes.
Whatever the recommendations, they will involve traffic coming to the juncture of Route 83 and Center Ridge from all four directions, Gillock said.
“There are no guarantees to anything — but the indication was that if we applied for the funds, we’d probably get it,” he said.
The city has until April 2009 to qualify for the ODOT funds.
“By getting started on it now, we’ll have plenty of time to get the analysis done and get our application filed in a timely manner,” Gillock said. “If we miss it, we have to wait a year.”
Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram November 19th, 2008 in Local and State. Popularity: 1% |
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