Intel-related roadwork leaves no good way to get home for New Albany, Jersey Twp residents
JERSEY TOWNSHIP − Randy Wickiser’s home on Clover Valley Road is about a quarter-mile from Jug Street, but early last week it was a trip most would not attempt and may regret.
On Tuesday morning, Clover Valley Road, north of Jug Street, was mostly gone, with a narrow strip of muddy, cracked and crumbling asphalt the best of the driving surfaces. Drivers waited for construction workers to move equipment and wave them through. That is until the next construction vehicle blocked their path.
The asphalt did not extend to Wickiser’s driveway entrance, nor to Jug Street. Residents also drove on bumpy gravel that causes a sedan to scrape the bottom of the vehicle.
The mailboxes for residents were located in the middle of the construction site, a treacherous walk for someone to get their mail. The mailboxes are being moved to Jug Street, Wickiser said.
A sign stated “Road closed. Local vehicles only” for those turning from Jug Street onto Clover Valley Road.
The construction work will widen Clover Valley, one of many roads being improved in preparation for Intel Corp.’s 2025 opening of a $20 billion computer chip manufacturing facility on Jersey Township land annexed into New Albany, just south of Johnstown.
Wickiser, 74, a retired Columbus police officer who moved there in 2001, said the road construction has been ongoing for months but ramped up to a new level last week.
“It is an absolute mess out here,” Wickiser said. “It’s like a bomb dropped. There is no Clover Valley Road. They never tell us anything. They don’t care. You never know, when you leave or come back, what’s going on.”
During construction, Wickiser said he endured dust and dirt everywhere, loud noises of wood-chippers and other equipment, a hole left at the end of his driveway, culvert pipes left in the yard, as well as tire tracks and cars parked in his yard.
He did not receive mail or trash service Monday because of road conditions. He doesn’t know how many other deliveries he may have missed. Friends don’t want to visit.
“You just get tired of it,” Wickiser said. “My nerves are absolutely shot.”
Naddia Dhalai, spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service in Cleveland said, "The letter carrier was not able to access some boxes on Monday, but mail was delivered the next day. Management is in communication with the construction company about the issue."
Wickiser owns 4.2 acres, with the house 300 feet back from the road. He wasn’t planning to move, but the Intel development has changed everything.
“I’ve had a little piece of paradise here for 20 years,” he said. “Where am I going to find a place like this, off the road? Without the construction, this would be a nice place. There’s 40 acres of woods behind me.”
One friend, Larry Carrington, did visit Tuesday but said it was treacherous.
“I didn’t know if I was going to get here,” Carrington said. “You can’t tell if the road keeps going.”
New Albany says poor road conditions the result of 'unforeseen' issues, already being improved
Josh Poland, spokesman for the city of New Albany, said the poor road conditions were temporary and have already been improved, and the contractor has been communicating with residents.
The city should complete its part of the project by the end of the year, when the residents will have a three-lane road and leisure trails. The west side of Clover Valley Road and the road itself are part of New Albany, but the residents on the east side of the road live in Jersey Township.
“As part of the Clover Valley road improvements, our contractor had been creating a temporary road while constructing the new Clover Valley Road,” Poland said. “This is a common practice that the city has performed many times before.
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“On Monday, when excavating the new road, our contractor ran into some unforeseen field conditions that led to the need for modifications to the temporary road, including a realignment with gravel. We are treating the temporary gravel road as a top priority and are working to minimalize the impacts to residents along this stretch of roadway.”
Prime Construction Management and Survey is the project administrator for the city, and the contractor for the project is Complete General Construction.
Justin Wilkinson, of Prime Construction, said he could not comment, but passed along questions to the city.
Poland said the temporary traffic maintenance on the gravel road should last two to three weeks, with an asphalt road there in the first half of August.
“City of New Albany staff understand and sympathize with the frustrations some residents near the road construction are feeling due to these temporary inconveniences during the road improvement process,” Poland said.
“The city has made every effort to update these residents through face-to-face meetings, phone calls, and mailed correspondence.”
Clover Valley Road, Jug Street residents explore selling properties as a package to developers
Wickiser said the only communication was a few months ago when two guys came gave him a map of the construction plans.
“They have never, never until two days ago, come talked to me,” Wickiser said. “They said, ‘You’ll have a new road, and it’ll be worth it.’ They just expect me to smile.”
Wickiser responded to the city’s contention the road conditions have improved since earlier in the week:
“A little better,” he said. “Not very much. Still a mess. It’s still a joke. Every morning, I don’t know what it’s going to be next. What am I going to face today?”
He said there was no offer from The New Albany Co. to buy his property, but he now has a Realtor who hopes to combine Wickiser’s property with several others in the area and market a tract of up to 100 acres.
“Individually, I couldn’t sell it,” Wickiser said. “Nobody would buy it.”
Belinda Salsburey, a Realtor with Keller Williams, and Mark Sullivan, communications director for KW Commercial, a division of Keller Williams, have been working with Clover Valley Road and Jug Street residents seeking to sell their properties.
They recently bundled 14 houses on 85 acres on Jug and Harrison streets and sold to a developer. The end user is unknown, Sullivan said, but the land will likely have some kind of big-box warehouse.
“We’re helping homeowners go into their next phase,” Sullivan said. “Yes, they are frustrated. There’s a lot of dirt and dust and mud flying around. They’ve gone from a country home setting to an industrial development, so the homeowners are kind of in a disruption pattern.
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“We have to get them through it. We have highs and lows. We protect the homeowners’ interest because (from) what we’re seeing, they don’t know what to do.”
The Keller Williams team said they know what homeowners are going through because their strategy of bundling properties for sale began with the sale of Salsburey’s home near Harrison and Jug. It sold in January.
Sullivan said they have an agreement with all seven Clover Valley property owners for their 11 parcels and about 80% of 12 parcels on Jug Street. He hopes to have all property owners on board in a couple weeks. Then, it could take up to two years to list, market and sell.
“The majority of developers we work with already have an end user,” Sullivan said. “They won’t tell us who it is. And they come from all over the country.”
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Intel-related roadwork leaves no good way to get home for some
