Ashtabula's spring paving to include 20 projects

Mar. 31—ASHTABULA — The 2023 street paving season will begin as soon as the weather allows, according to Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere.

The list includes 20 projects, including a redesign of the West Avenue bike lane.

"This is an aggressive list, using funds from the paving levy, as well as the American Rescue Plan Act," he said. "Although we did not have a lot of snow this year, the repeated freeze/thaw cycles didn't help our road conditions."

City Council President John Roskovics said he's very excited about the amount of paving that will be accomplished this year.

Timonere said he expects the bid packet to be ready very soon and available to contractors.

This year's paving list includes:

—Westwood Drive (South Termini to West 9th Street).

—Myrtle Avenue (West 9th Street to West 10th Street and West 11th to West 13th Street).

—Walnut Boulevard (Lake Avenue to Point Park).

—Benefit Avenue (Route 20 to West 38th Street, halfway between the curve).

—Michigan Avenue (Replacing asphalt from West 19th Street to concrete portion of roadway).

—The alley east of State Road from East 45th Street to East 43rd Street.

—East 44th Street (Valleyview Boulevard to State Road).

—Fort Avenue (Perryville Place to Route 20).

—West 54th Street (Fort Avenue to Stark Avenue).

—Poplar Avenue (West 58th to West 56th Street).

—Adams Avenue (Bunker Hill Road to West 52nd Street).

—West 59th Street (Jefferson to Adams avenues).

—West 56th Street (West Avenue to Poplar Avenue).

—Redesign West Avenue bike lane.

—West 45th Street (West Termini to West Avenue).

—Birchwood Avenue (East 44th to East 42nd streets).

—Fox Drive (Main Avenue to West 58th Street).

—West Avenue (West 58th Street to Route 20).

"In addition to these streets, Route 20 from about Center Street west to the city limits will be resurfaced, starting sometime this spring," Timonere said. "Last year we were able to convince the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to move this project up on their schedule due to the condition of this section of Route 20."

Once finished, the entire section of Route 20 within the city limits will be complete.

The city's financial contribution to the project was paid last year, he said.

The bike lane along West Avenue from West 34th Street, north to Smith Field will receive a redesign this summer. City officials originally wanted to see a north- and south-bound drive lane with a center turning lane and the bike lanes off to the east.

"This is the design we advocated for in the beginning and since there has been so much displeasure of the current configuration, we are going to re-stripe the roadway to what we had proposed in the beginning," Timonere said. "The reason there is such a large buffer area is because in its current configuration, this is both a bike and pedestrian lane."

When the redesign is completed, pedestrians will cross at West 38th Street and use the sidewalks along the west side of West Avenue to Griswold, where they will then use the sidewalks down to Michigan Avenue. They will then turn north and reconnect with the trail in the vicinity of Andover Bank.

Also on the paving list is the resurfacing of Ferry Drive, which leads back to the former Coast Guard Station, now home to Harbor Yak. This project will be completely financed with a $460,000 federal grant from Congress.

In the near future, Collins Boulevard from Main Avenue to West 46th Street will be resurfaced, thanks to a $1.2 million Small Cities Grant the city was awarded last year.

"This spring, ODOT and Norfolk Southern will be reconstructing the intersection and rail crossing at Main Avenue and Collins Boulevard," Timonere said. "We will begin design and engineering for the remainder of Collins Boulevard."

The concrete roadway will be removed, repairs to the base will be made and the surface will be restored with asphalt, he said.

"This section was never eligible for ODOT matching funds although it is considered part of State Route 84 because it is concrete," he said. "Going forward, it will be eligible for the 80/20 match when this route is resurfaced."

Timonere also applied for Transportation Improvement District funding to resurface the concrete section of Michigan Avenue that leads to the Ashtabula Lakeside Elementary Campus and two factories — Molded Fiber Glass [MFG] and Chromaflo/Vibrantz Technologies.

"We will resurface the asphalt section of Michigan Avenue with this year's program, but the concrete section is a bigger project," he said. "I have applied for over $450,000 in grant funding and the city will contribute $100,000, if awarded."

Michigan Avenue is heavily traveled and officials at MFG and Chromaflo/Vibrantz Technologies have said they are looking to expand their workforce, which will bring more traffic to the area.

All these paving projects have been made possible because voters passed the city's paving levy, Timonere said.

In March 2019, City Council voted to put a 4-mill, five-year levy on the November ballot that would be exclusively for road paving.

Voters passed the levy and in the first two years of the levy (2020 and 2021), the city received almost $1.7 million, according to the city's financial records.

"By working with our partners at the state and federal levels and applying for various grants, we have been able to turn that into just over $2.5 million worth of paving through the end of 2021," he said. "We are doing everything we can to stretch these dollars."