Road repairs and resurfacing, bridge replacement top county's road projects
The Guernsey County Highway Department has finalized its game plan for 202, according to Guernsey County Engineer Paul Sherry, who pointed out that grant funding will play a key role in all of the projects being planned.
"All of our work depends on the availability of grant funding," Sherry explained. "Over the last 20 years, our revenue has not kept the pace with inflation. We were fortunate to have an increase in the gas tax in 2019, which has negated in the recent years of cost increases. As time goes on, we will continue to lose purchasing power and possibly even our ability to have matching funds for grants."
A resurfacing of 8.8 miles of county highways is the largest project for the summer, with repairs being made to portions of Guernsey Valley, Freedom and Oxford roads. It will be followed by a cold paving resurfacing to improve profile and ride of the road, along with a final sealer, and the road will also have a layer of stone.
The breakdown of the affected area will be Guernsey Valley Road from Eighth Street, 3.4 miles to Ohio 541, Freedom Road from Egress Road 3.4 miles to Birmingham Road, and, finally, Oxford Road from Basket Road north 2.0 miles to the county line.
Melway Paving will be performing the work at the bid price of $1.6 millon. Some of the cost comes from repairs made prior to resurfacing. Without the repairs, the per mile cost is about $160,000, which is about $20,000 per mile less than the traditional hot mix resurfacing according to Sherry.
"Keeping the costs as low as possible, while getting the best product possible is important to provide the best services we can afford," Sherry stated. "In this case, we were able to retain $600,000 in grants to perform this work. However, even with the grant money, we still need to have about $1 million or almost 20 percent of our annual revenue available for a match.
"The project should began in early May, with a 6 to 8 week time frame for completion," Sherry said. "But paving projects are always weather dependent. They really need several days above 50 degrees, and of course we are one of many customers for them. So we need to be flexible as far as time frame and there should not be any road closure with it. People will just be flagged around it."
The next few Guernsey County projects scheduled have not been bid yet since funds are not yet available, so start dates are still unknown according to Sherry.
The projects start with the replacement of a bridge on Eighth Street Road, a short distance north of the intersection of Wills Creek Valley Drive. Funding for this bridge project will also be grant supported, with the expected price tag to be between $550,000 and $650,000. Funds for this project are set to be released in July of this year. With this timing, the closure of the bridge is expected to take place in the fall and winter.
"The current structure will be totally removed and replaced with a prefabricated concrete arch structure," Sherry explained. "Due to the curvature of the creek at that location, the bridge itself is significantly longer. But this will also help minimize erosion and bank failure."
The final major project of the year will be grant funded by a new program sponsored by the Ohio Department of Transportation. The grant in the amount of more than $1.2 million is a safety grant to be used to remove roadside hazards.
Work will include the removal of trees and brush, widening shoulders, and improving the grades along various locations on 40 miles of roadway. This project will also be bid later this year. Roads to have various improvements made include Eighth Street, Old 21, Plainfield, Freedom, Birmingham, Broadhead, Beeham, Georgetown, Claysville, Oakwood, Country Club and Byesville Roads.
"This is a new grant program from ODOT," Sherry explained. "We were fortunate to receive the first grant in the state and hope to show a great benefit so it continues to be funded."
Sherry pointed out a few ongoing projects in the county, including the completion of the road slip on New Gottengen Road, repairing on a small slip on Putney Ridge, and beginning the design work for a road slip on Guernsey Valley Road.
kstutton1@gannett.com; @KSuttonDJSports
This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Road repairs and resurfacing, bridge replacement top county's road projects
