Politics & Government

Construction on South Taylor to Start in Late June

Cleveland Heights must wait for word on state funding before South Taylor construction can begin

'Tis the season for orange barrels, and if you've driven on South Taylor Road lately, you know it's true. But City Manager Robert Downey doesn't want you to get those orange barrels confused with the ones that will appear later this year.

South Taylor Road will get an overhaul this summer, but the crews that are out at the intersection of Mayfield and South Taylor roads right now aren't city crews.

"That's (Dominion) East Ohio Gas," Downey said. "That doesn't have anything to do with the road project. Whenever we do a huge project like this where you rip up the road, we let all the utility companies know and if they have a reason to be in the street to get in there and get the work done before we get started."

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Dominion East Ohio is working to repair all the gas lines from Mayfield Road south to the East Cleveland border, Downey said.

Work on crack-filled South Taylor Road will begin in late June, pending the state budget, Downey said. The $5 million project gets its funding from the federal, state and county government. The state funding is still in limbo.

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"The last piece of the puzzle financially was a piece of funding from the state, and we've all been watching what's going on with our state budget here," Downey said. "The governor has come in and he's balancing the budget by a method based on cutting expenditures instead of increasing revenues, and we're hoping that it makes it through all the cuts."

Because Cleveland Heights hasn't heard otherwise, they're moving forward with the project as planned. The final drawings are still going through approval phases, and Downey expects the project to go out to bid soon. The lowest bidder will be chosen tentatively in June.

Crews will rip up the concrete portion of the road, create a new base and pave it with asphalt. Downey and Mayor Ed Kelley expect the project will take at least two to three years. The project will start at Euclid Heights Boulevard and run north on Taylor to the East Cleveland border, which is roughly a mile and a half.

"I drive it every day, and I'm not kidding when I say it's the worst road in Cuyahoga County," Kelley said. "It's concrete, it was laid in the 1960s and it's just in really bad shape."

Kelley has heard several complaints about the road, "and the biggest one has been from me," he laughed.

The plan to fix South Taylor has been in the works since the early 2000s, but the city had a hard time finding the money to pay for it. Original estimates came in around $7 million to $8 million, which was high, Downey said. After some configuring, the city managed to finagle the price to roughly $5 million.

Downey said he will know more about funding and the project in early May.


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