City taking pro-active approach to street repairs
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Feb. 6, 2008

City officials are trying to lay groundwork for making future street projects last longer.

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City Council is expected to consider this month a resolution recommended by the streets committee asking Ohio Department of Transportation officials and Cuyahoga County engineers to inspect and review the 2006 Lorain Road construction project from Canterbury Road to North Olmsted’s east corporation line to see if the work was done in accordance with ODOT bid specifications and repair guidelines. Several city officials have said many portions of the more than $1 million project are already cracking and in need of repair.

Officials requested City Engineer Dan Collins speak with ODOT officials about the situation and they also plan to send a letter to the state with a copy of the resolution seeking further action. Both council and administration leaders say they are trying to be more pro-active in repairing street enforcing regulations.

“We’re just trying to get the most bang for our bucks,” said Michael Gareau Jr., chairman of city council’s finance committee. “It’s frequently been a case in the past where we’ve had projects done, but they haven’t been done well. We want to make make our work last longer so we don’t have to be spending more money again to fix it in the near future.”

Mayor Thomas O’Grady said he supports council’s resolution and efforts to make street projects better while adding his administration has also taken steps to upgrade the work.

“If it ruffles a few feathers at ODOT, so be it,” said O’Grady. “We need to make sure that the we’re providing the best roads we can for citizens and motorists coming through our city. We’ve implemented a street rating system in the city which takes the politics out of picking street repair work and instead uses a rating system to determine which streets need work the most. We’re also using asphalt overlays more extensively which will allow us to do more projects and get more work done than if we had done exclusively concrete.

Gareau said the Lorain Road work is a good example of a project which could cause additional problems in the future.

“When your drive through that area, it’s already cracking and having problems in a number of areas,” Gareau said. “We’re not in a financial position where we can be pouring more money into it in a couple of years. We don’t know if its engineering, the work done on the street or some other part of the construction but we want go et these things right. We put money into this as well and we do expect it to be done properly.”

ODOT officials have said they checked the area and that additional crack sealing was done on the project. However, Collins said his conversations with ODOT officials indicated they don’t plan to do any additional work. “They’ve said the book is closed on this project to them,” Collins said. “They don’t plan to go further.”

City officials don’t plan to accept that answer.

“That’s unacceptable,” Gareau said. “This project is a major roadway that sees heavy traffic every day. We all put major funding into it and we don’t want to have to put more into it within five or six years.”

O’Grady noted that the city and state had to negotiate getting additional work done on Great Northern Boulevard after it fell into disrepair a few years ago.

“They told us it was our responsibility on that one as well,” O’Grady said. “We talked with them and noted the original work had been the state’s. So we eventually got it so the state agreed to help and fund most of it.”

Streets and Transportation Committee Chairwoman Nicole Dailey Jones said she supports taking additional action.

“If we don’t get any after the letter and resolution, I would certainly want to go further,” Jones said. “We are trying to make everybody more accountable and make these projects last.”

She noted that council has also approved in recent months other legislation which would make contractors more accountable on street repair projects, noting as an example there had been concern about work on the Crocker-Stearns extension project.

Jones said she again plans to have council tour city streets along with Service Director Duane Limpert and Collins.

Collins said the city workers will be seeing every street in the city regularly in the plan.

“We’ll be reviewing every street at least once every two years and we’ll look and check regularly streets which don’t do well in the ratings,” he said.

Ward 2 Councilman Paul Barker, who became chairman of the Building, Zoing and Development Committee this year, said having a major roadway in poor condition can cause problems for many.

“Look at Clague Road,” Barker said, citing the roadway which runs through his ward. “It was a major problem for years. Not only the residents and workers in that ares, but motorists who go on it while going somewhere else. It gives them a bad impression of the city, which can carry over to other areas.

Gareau said the city will continue to be pro-active. As a member of council, Gareau said he will continue to advocate regular crack sealing and preventative maintenance work.