Glenwood Roundabout Project Update – August 1st, 2019

As you know the City of Twinsburg is in the midst of a large construction project on Route 91 and near the Glenwood Roundabout. While Council will not meet again until August 27th I wanted to provide an update. Not only as a Councilperson but as a resident I understand and share in the frustration in how long this project has taken. Please note below the original timeline for completion was September 2019.

I reached out to City Engineer Amy Mohr asking for an update, timeline and cause of any delays. Below is her response to those questions.

Construction Update

SR 91 Widening Project – Glenwood Drive  into Solon

Original Construction: Sept 2018 through Sept 2019

Update:

Working on curbs/ sidewalks/ paving on the east side of the road.  Most of the island brick work on Meadowood and what they are able to complete in center islands is completed. Once they have pavement at Ethan’s then they will be able to shift traffic  similar to southbound traffic operation opening up the center island work that needs to be completed. Prior to starting pavement on Ethan’s both Ohio Edison and Windstream needed the work zone to complete relocations – this could not be done when traffic was shifted on the east side of the road. We also have an issue with some pavement in the southbound lane that will need correction due to not meeting ODOT testing lab requirements – but this should be done around time of paving and should not impact schedule.

Delays: 

Utility interferences has impacted the schedule the most.  Utilities where not complete with relocations at start of project (still one pole remaining).

NOTE: The “one pole remaining” is in reference to one pole still having a third party utility attached to it which we will leave a gap in sidewalk at that location if required until it is relocated and pole removed.   If Ohio Edison continues to delay removing the other poles then the sidewalk work is delayed. Concrete for sidewalks cannot be firmly scheduled with the sub-contractor until the poles are removed.

Phasing of construction was modified to help mitigate utility delays which has impacted intersection closure time.  Additional work required by Cleveland water occurred in fall.  A leaking value impacting subgrade construction. And unstabile subbase required additional undercut. Utility impacts and Weather delays have been the biggest issue this spring.

Based on last progress meeting:

  • End of August shift northbound traffic and Right in/Right out operation (Anticipate around Aug 19th plus or minus a week.)
  • Late September 2019 anticipate Ethan/Meadowood intersection fully operational.
  • We will then go back to phase 1a  (which was skipped to make sure we could switch pavement and open up winter work on east side of road before end of construction 2018) Phase 1a cannot occur until roundabout fully operational at Ethan/Meadowood as a Glenwood closure and detour will be required. Phase 1a will lower the west side of the existing roundabout to address the concerns of “bump” that were raised after construction. Phase 1a will be approximately 3 weeks to complete.  So there will be some work in October at Glenwood Drive area and anticipate final surface and striping will be complete at that time as well.   So looks like a few weeks into October to complete phase 1a  which is close to the Sept 2019 completion date.

Mitigation for Utilities:

  • Delayed Phase 1a until end of project
  • Combined Phase 1 and 3 in Fall of 2018
  • Combined Phase 2 and 4 for winter/spring 2019 work
  • Phase 5 still to occur (center island and final surface paving)

Trees/Foliage:

Prior to this project we acquired right of way through the Federal Process.  The impacts to landscape beds/trees and shrubs were purchased from property owners which due to landscape easements went to the HOA’s.  This project only has seeding – other items settlement paid.  (Meadowood HOA $26,500, Cobblestone HOA $13,560, Orchard Hill $2,855, Ethan’s Green $7,050)

Please note that some of the foliage removed was due to utility interference in the existing utility easements or new utility easements (in existing easements the utility has the right to remove).  Planting on top of buried lines or where impact to overhead lines could be problematic –  If HOA plans to plant they should contact Ohio Utility Protection Services prior to digging so that utilities are marked to avoid any damage.

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I’d like to thank Amy for her detailed response. There’s a lot in there. Let me know if you’ve got questions. If I don’t know the answers I’m happy to try and get them for you. Thanks to everyone for dealing with this, keeping speeds low through construction zones and watching out for kids and other pedestrians.