SIDNEY — Seven Shelby County road projects totalling $4.2 million have been sold for the Ohio Department of Transportation District 7’s 2016 construction season.
ODOT announced their schedule of projects Tuesday. For District 7, projects that sold in fischal year 2016 include:
• 9 projects at $6.3 million for Auglaize County
• 3 projects at $3.2 million for Champaign County
• 12 projects at $10.9 million for Clark County
• 8 projects at $4.7 million for Darke County
• 5 projects at $4.1 million for Logan County
• 10 projects at $13.6 million for Mercer County
• 8 projects at $8.2 million for Miami County
• 29 projects at $52 million for Montgomery County
• 7 projects at $4.2 million for Shelby County
Across the state, ODOT will invest $2.1 billion in the state’s transportation network this construction season.
The 2016 program is driven by two key components: addressing major critical infrastructure needs today, and introducing an enhanced, data-driven business strategy for maintaining the 43,000 miles of roads and 14,000 bridges on the state system.
The 2016 program
ODOT will deliver more than 1,100 projects across the state in 2016. Altogether, they are designed to improve the condition of roads and bridges, increase safety, and make the transportation of people and goods more efficient.
“We’re charged with the care of Ohio’s largest man-made asset — the transportation network,” said ODOT Director Jerry Wray. “We take this very seriously, because investments in our infrastructure are vital to Ohio’s economic growth and development. By maintaining a safe, reliable, and efficient system, we help to create the environment for more jobs, easier commerce, and a stronger Ohio — for today and for tomorrow.”
Of the 1,100 projects in 2016, 157 will focus specifically on safety, at a cost of $256.4 million. The program includes $417.5 million for improving the condition of more than 1,167 bridges and $629.3 million for 6,485 miles of pavement.
ODOT is also adding capacity to the system where it is most needed today, after careful planning, research and project development. This year, the state will invest $207.1 million—or approximately 10 percent of the overall construction budget—in expanding roads to ease current congestion.
The 2016 construction program features 27 projects valued over $10 million, with a combined value of $769 million. It also represents a fourth consecutive year of near-record dollars invested, made possible in large part by Governor Kasich’s Jobs & Transportation Plan. From 2011 to 2016, ODOT has committed roughly $12.5 billion across 5,934 projects—the largest overall transportation investment in Ohio’s history.
The plan
As it has for decades, ODOT is committing roughly 90 percent of this year’s construction budget to activities related to taking care of existing roads and bridges. This year, the department is introducing an enhanced three-part strategy to strengthen its preservation efforts.
The first component is data, which ODOT gathers and analyzes through advanced software systems. Following a decade of refinement, the data now drives decisions related to the second component: a range of preservation treatments such as asphalt, microsurfacing, and bridge cleaning among many others. The third component, collaboration, unifies the work plans of ODOT’s planning and maintenance divisions, creates greater statewide consistency, and depends on strong partnerships between ODOT and its business contractors.
“In order to take care of our transportation network, we have to accurately measure it. That information helps us determine the right actions to take, at the right time, and in the right places, for everything from replacing a culvert on a two-lane state road to adding lanes to an interstate,” said Wray. “With greater consistency and collaboration across the state, we are making sound business decisions on behalf of Ohio. Once again, this is for the benefit of our transportation system now and into the future.”
ODOT’s preservation plan is estimated to create savings that will redirect approximately $300 million back into safety, capacity and preservation projects over the next six years.
Construction continues on the I-75 Modernization Project in Dayton which will create three continuous lanes, a centralized entrance and exit ramp to downtown and a much smoother commute. This project is scheduled for completion in September 2017, however, it is currently several months ahead of schedule and running below budget. The I-70 lane addition, which will add a third lane in each direction between state Route 48 and Airport Access Road is still under construction. Preservation work is also taking place on I-75 in Troy.
A call for work zone safety
As a consequence of record number of work sites, ODOT has seen an alarming rise in crashes and fatalities in Ohio’s work zones, where drivers and passengers are more than twice as likely as workers to be victims. Last year, Ohio recorded 6,035 work zone crashes, the highest number in a decade. Those crashes resulted in 1,150 injuries and 30 deaths.
A work zone may be a mile of orange barrels, or a single vehicle parked on the side of the road with flashing lights. Whatever the case, Ohio’s Move Over law requires drivers to slow down and, if they can, move over a lane to give roadside workers safe space to perform their jobs.
The Ohio Department of Transportation District 7 serves nine counties in Ohio.
Local construction projects which are underway or have been sold for the 2016 construction season include:
Shelby County
• Interstate 75, multilane minor rehab pavement project, mill and fill, I-75 from County Road 25A to Shelby County, I-75 from Miami County to state Route 29, $28,444,450 contract to Barrett Paving Materials, under traffic.
• State Route 47, access management and intersection realignment on state Route 47 between I-75 west and Vandemark Road, $906,631 contract to LJ Deweese Co, lane closures/under traffic.
• State Route 47, mill and fill, I-75 from County Road 25A to Shelby county, I-75 from Miami county to state Route 29, $719,108 contract to Barrett Paving Materials, lane closures/under traffic.
• Various routes in Mercer/Shelby counties, micro-surfacing, state Route 119 from U.S. 127 to state Route 716; state Route 274 from Chickasaw corporation limit to Auglaize County; state Route 29 from Auglaize County to state Route 274; state Route 29 from state Route 119 to County Road 45 Mason Road; and state Route 119 from 1098 Renee Drive to Anna corporation limit; $123,700, flagging/under traffic.
• I-75/state Route 196, spot paving, I-75 from Shelby County to Allen County; I-75 from state Route 219 to Auglaize County; and state Route 196 from Elm Street to Waynesfield corporation limit, $690,000 contract to Shelly Company, lane closures/flagging/under traffic.
• State Route 48, replace bridge with minimal approach work, state Route 48 over Klase Ditch, $370,000 contract to J&J Schlaegel, detour.
• Various routes in Darke/Mercer/Shelby counties, structural steel bridge painting, various locations, $91.848 contract to Cosmos Comprehensive Construction, Darke/Mercer counties, flagging/under traffic, and Shelby County, Mason Road, detour, and I-75, lane closures.
• I-75, replace parapets, restore semi-integral bearing retainer and patching spalls; overlay bridge deck, patch piers, retrofit parapet and conversion to semi-integral abutments and bridge painting, I-75 at Penn Central Railroad; I-75 at Bellefontaine Street; I-75 at Sharp Road, $996,000 contract to Bridge Specialists, lane closures/under traffic.
• State Route 29, reface back walls, rebuild wing walls, fix pier encasements, state Route 29 near Loramie Creek, $90,500 contract to Global Outdoor Solutions, flagging/under traffic.
• Michigan Street, bridge replacement over the railroad, Sidney, $1.009,,410 contract to Eagle Bridge Company, detour.
• I-75, install traffic signal, intersection of Fair Road and I-75 north ramp, $170,775 contract to Perram Electric, flagging/under traffic.
Auglaize County
• State Route 65, micro surfacing, Shelby County to U.S. 33 and County Road 203 to Allen County, $641,865 contract to Strauser Construction, flagging/under traffic.
• State Route 66, removal and replacement of culvert, state Route 66 over the Miami and Erie Canal, $485,000 contract to VTF Excavation, detour.
Darke County
• Municipal Route 650, rehabilitation North Center Street bridge, in village of Versailles, $612,050, detour.
• State Route 47, place new wearing surface of non-composite box beams with SDC hard overlay, state Route 47 at Swamp Creek in the village of Versailles, $352,129 contract to BCC Ohio Inc., detour.
County wide projects
• Rural 4-lane highways, apply herbicides along roadside for weed control on four lanes, four lane routes in Miami, Shelby, Auglaize, Mercer and Darke counties, $87,610 contract to Naturchem Inc., under traffic.
• Traffic signal maintenance project, district wide, $557,539 contract to Capital Electric Line, flagging/under traffic.
• Highway lighting maintenance project, district 7 and 8, $2,541,138 contract to American Lighting, lane closures/under traffic.
• Fast dry pavement markings, district wide, $2,098,824 contract to Dura Mark Inc., lane closures/under traffic.
• District wide polyester pavement markings, $759,316, lane closures/under traffic.
• Mowing, district wide, $1,139,844 contract to Thompson Interstate mowing, under traffic.
• Apply herbicides along roadside for weed control on two-lane highways, two-lane routes in Auglaize, Logan, Champaign and Clark counties, $133,877 contract to Daltons Inc., under traffic.
• Raised pavement markers, district wide, $117,150, lane closures/flagging/under traffic.
• Various bridges in Clark, Miami and Shelby counties, repair various bridges, patching abutments and deck edges using anodes, encasing, $2,206,939.
