ASHLAND – Adena workers poured 140 tons of concrete on a newly constructed underground bridge on West Main Street on Wednesday, the first of many final steps toward completing the months-long project that closed a section of one of Ashland’s busiest streets.
The $998,830 project began in early June and resulted in the closure of West Main Street between Broad Street and Race Street.
Ashland County Engineer Ed Meixner said Wednesday the project is still on budget but may not be completed until Sept. 19 or 20.
County commissioners hired the Adena Corporation in May, and crews have been working there since June 3. The work included demolishing the old bridge and building a new one, all on public land. The public land happens to be West Main Street.
Will this solve flooding?
Meixner said the new culvert, which runs under Main Street, is wider, which should help alleviate flooding problems. However, most flooding occurs on both sides of the culvert, on private property.
That’s because the culverts at both ends of the bridge are older and narrower, he said. The wider culvert over Main Street should help a little, though.
“It should work better, but I’m not sure it will be noticeably better,” Meixner said.
He said that to eliminate the flooding that occurs on both sides of the bridge, a “much larger” structure would be needed, a project he was unsure whether it would ever come to fruition.
“As soon as we leave the right-of-way, this is a city project. I don’t want to put this on the city, but we’ve tried to deal with the structure here … what’s happening on the other sides (of Main Street), there are obviously some problems. And they’re going to have to be resolved at some point,” he said.
financing
The road is an extension of an Ashland County road that happens to run through the city, requiring a partnership between the two governmental entities.
In December 2022, the city passed a resolution committing to provide the county with 15,000 tons of asphalt grind in exchange for funding a project.
The county is funding the project with $436,083 from a combination of American Rescue Plan Act funds and gasoline tax revenue.
An additional $500,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission helped provide funding.
