City getting $1 million for I-480 bridge overpass work
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published April 19, 2006

North Olmsted city officials and area motorists are getting a million dollar assist from the state and Cuyahoga County in the near future.

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said he was notified last week that the city will be receiving $1.15 million in Issue 2 funds for repair of the I-480 bridge overpass on Great Northern Boulevard. The news comes less than a year after state officials had told their city counterparts that North Olmsted would have to be entirely responsible for paying for the major repairs needed on the heavily traveled area.

City officials were pleased by the reverse by the state.

“It just goes to show you how cooperation and persistence can pay off,” said Mayor Thomas O’Grady. “A year ago we were looking at a huge repair bill that, quite frankly, the city would not have been able to handle in that form at that time.”

After state officials told their city counterparts they wouldn’t be helping, O’Grady initiated talks with the state to try and get a different decision.

“It just wasn’t fair and equitable in our eyes since the state had helped get it in and does bear a good deal of responsibility for it,” O’Grady said. “We began a series of quiet negotiations on this and just kept working at it.”

After some talks, city officials found the state was willing to offer some help, but still hadn’t gone near the million dollar mark.

“We presented our case to them and showed them how heavily traveled and vital the roadway is to not just the city, but the entire area and even the state,” O’Grady said. “You have a large amount of traffic going through there all the time and it’s something that was easily shown to them.”

After the other officials saw the information, O’Grady said they seemed to feel running the state Issue 2 funds through Cuyahoga County was the right way to handle the project.

“County Engineer Robert Klaiber and his staff played a major role in getting this here and we highly appreciate that,” said O’Grady. “This will be a major benefit to all the area.”

North Olmsted’s share of the project is now only somewhat over $200,000, which city officials have been planning for, O’Grady said.

“We’re setting that money aside so the work can get going as soon as possible,” O’Grady said.

Another savings is that the county and state will be handling the project engineering costs, O’Grady said. Once under way, officials estimate the project will take about three months to complete.

“We hope to start it up sometime by the summer if the engineering is done by then,” O’Grady said. “With the work time looking like that, we’d like to have it done by the start of the holiday season.”

If that’s not possible, O’Grady said officials then probably will wait to start the project until next spring.

“That’s not the type of road work you want to have going on during a holiday traffic season,” O’Grady said. “I don’t think that’s fair to motorists going through that area.”

Nicole Dailey Jones, chairwoman of council’s streets and transportation committee, said the funding is welcome news.

“We have a number of major projects either under way or that will be starting within the next couple of years,” she said. “To get another one like this is a big benefit.”

Jones cited the Clague Road work already under way, with additional Lorain Road work starting later this year and the long-awaited Crocker-Stearns Road Extension project within the next year to two years.

Ward 2 Councilman Paul Barker, whose ward includes the Clague Road project, said the administration deserved credit for getting the funds.

“That’s major for the city budget because we didn’t have the funding for that kind of work all by ourselves,” Barker said. “That’s a good job of getting something which will allow us to find other uses for some of our other resources.”