Accident-plagued intersection in Dover Township to be rebuilt
NEW PHILADELPHIA – Tuscarawas County will be using federal highway dollars to reconstruct the intersection of Dover Zoar Road and Schneiders Crossing Road in Dover Township, which has been the scene of several accidents in recent years.
County commissioners have awarded a contract to Shelly & Sands Inc. of North Jackson, which had the low bid of $664,191 for the project.
More Tuscarawas County road news:Commissioners ask ODOT to lower speed limit on three county roads
The reconstruction will be funded by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration.
"We got the grant because that's a high-accident intersection. We're basically correcting that," county Engineer Joe Bachman said.
"We're cutting a hump off so that people who are sitting at the stop sign at Schneiders Crossing Road can have better sight distance for those vehicles that are coming from the north," he said. "We're also trying to make the intersection a little bit more visible. We're going to put up some flashing stop signs. There have been a couple of accidents where people have actually run the stop sign. We're basically going to do everything we can to make the intersection safer."
On Dec. 27, 2017, a 79-year-old Sandyville man was killed in a two-vehicle crash at the intersection. One of the most recent accidents there occurred on Oct. 1, which resulted in two people being taken to the hospital. In that crash, the driver failed to stop at the stop sign on Schneiders Crossing, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
There is no scheduled date for construction to begin, Bachman said. The work will likely be done during the fall of 2023. The contractor has been given a completion date of October 2023.
He noted that the intersection can be closed for only a maximum of 75 days.
In addition, the county engineer's office is getting plans together to widen the pavement on Dover Zoar Road from Dover to the intersection with Schneiders Crossing. This project will probably be done in 2024, he said. The county has a federal safety grant to pay for the work.
"We watch the safety money, and when we have a high-accident area that is eligible for federal safety funds, we try to pursue it. This is an area of high accidents," Bachman said.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Tuscarawas County to reconstruct intersection in Dover Township
