Summit County Engineer's Office

PUBLIC NOTICE: SUMMIT COUNTY ENGINEER ANNOUNCES IMPROVEMENTS TO NORTH STREET BRIDGE OVER LITTLE CUYAHOGA RIVER

The Summit County Engineer Alan Brubaker, P.E., P.S.is proposing to replace the bridge which carries North Street over the Little Cuyahoga River in the City of Akron.  The surrounding land use is commercial and industrial.

The project involves constructing a new bridge just west of the North Street intersection with Arlington Street.  The existing structure is a cast-in-place concrete slab bridge with reinforced concrete substructures.  The preliminary engineering study for this project selected three bridge replacement alternatives for further evaluation and comparison.  This study selected Alternative A as the preferred alternative.  Alternative A is a prefabricated reinforced concrete arch having an opening 54 ft. wide with a rise of 20 ft.  The new bridge would be 46 ft. face to face of curb with two 5 ft. sidewalks and pedestrian railings.  Alternative B considered a steel plate girder structure and Alternative C considered a prestressed concrete I-beam structure.  The proposed improvements with selected Alternative A will closely match the existing North Street horizontal and vertical alignments with widened lanes to meet current design standards.  The project also includes replacing the roadway approaches, providing for a 5 ft. wide bicycle lane in each direction and new pavement markings and signage.  The project cost is estimated at $1,216,000.

Bi-directional traffic will be maintained throughout construction of the project.  The proposed project will not adversely impact any cultural resources, suspect hazardous waste sites or result in substantial impacts to ecological resources.

The Preliminary Engineering and Environmental Studies are available for viewing at the Summit County Engineers Office, 538 East South Street, Akron, Ohio (Contact Mr. Geordie Kissos by telephone 330-643-8537, by fax 330-762-7829 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for viewing scheduling.)

The Summit County Engineer is seeking comments from the public about the social, environmental, and economic impacts of this project.  Written comments concerning the project may be mailed to the Summit County Engineer’s Office, Attention: Geordie Kissos, P.E., 538 East South Street, Akron, Ohio 44311. All comments must be post marked by May 12, 2013.

Akron, Ohio– Alan Brubaker, P.E., P.S., Summit County Engineer announced today that he opposes any additional attempts to increase truck weight limits from 80,000 pounds to 90,000 pounds. The language in a House Bill that allowed for bigger and heavier trucks on Ohio’s roads was removed in the State Senate, however legislators may attempt to re-insert the provision in conference committee. The Summit County Engineer does not support adding the language back into the bill.

All trips begin and end on local roads. Ohio’s counties, townships, and municipalities maintain 83% of road miles in Ohio and county engineer’s maintain 61% of all public bridges in Ohio. The original proposal allowed overweight trucks to drive on any road within two miles of the turnpike. Summit County has many township, village, city and county roads within that range. Larger trucks decrease safety on roads. The additional weight will damage roadways and bridges or will cause them to deteriorate at a quicker rate. Summit County roads were built for a twenty-year life cycle based upon current and projected car and truck traffic; increasing truck loads will reduce the life of the pavements dramatically. Repairs and reconstruction of roadways will be more expensive.

In addition, in the last three years, Summit County load rated all 315 County-owned bridges. All load ratings were calculated based on 80,000-pound trucks. If the new standard is put in place, all bridges will have to be load rated again, costing the federal government $45 million, not to mention the cost to the local governments who contribute 20% to the load rating project. As with roadways, additional weight on bridges will cause rapid deterioration.

Summit County Council will be discussing a Resolution to oppose the increase this coming Monday, March 18^th. The Resolution is currently sponsored by County Executive Russ Pry and County Councilwoman Sandra Kurt.