Replacement of New Waterford’s Main St. bridge to begin shortly
NEW WATERFORD — Village Administrator Jason Gorby expects work to begin on replacing the Main Street bridge over Bull Creek as soon as the utility lines are moved.
The bridge is on County Road 450 and county commissioners approved county Engineer Bert Dawson’s recommendation to award the bridge replacement contract to Marcucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown.
The company had the second lowest bid at $341,143 after the lowest bidder failed to meet the bidding requirements.
The bridge crosses the creek and is an east-west connector through the village.
The entire bridge will be torn down and traffic will be diverted to Boardman Street and Silliman Street.
Gorby said, “It’s been bad for a long time,” and orange traffic cones have been spaced along the north side of the bridge where the edge of the road is crumbling.
The county will fund the replacement with grant money.
There is a gas line under it along with a village waterline that has shut-offs at each end and an electric utility pole will have to be relocated before work begins.
“It depends on the utilities being moved,” Gorby said.
Mayor Shane Patrone said they tried to do the project last year and they were now waiting for Ohio Edison to remove a pole for the work to begin.
He added, “I don’t know the timeline, but we hope to be done by the end of June or early July because we’re paving Main Street. We hope to have it done.”
The village is also dredging the park pond, something Gorby has wanted to do to clear up excessive algae growth.
For the last four days they have been excavating bucket loads of silt from the pond that is the centerpiece for the village’s 4th of July fishing tournament.
Tons of the wet silt have been drying along the bank of the pond and Gorby said it will be recycled on village property near the water and sewage plant.
He said some of it could be used to fortify the backstop at the village police shooting range.
“We’ve got a million uses for it,” he said, noting they’ve dredged out about all the silt they can reach. The banks of the pond should be cleared of the silt and seeded in a couple of weeks.
It will also provide more room for the fish, Gorby said and the village plans to restock it once the work is completed.
There is a little more work to be done on the concrete overflow, Gorby said.
“We’ll pour and overlay,” he said adding the pond is available for fishing.
“It’s open,” he said.
In other business, Patrone said there was no update on the open council seat created when Councilwoman Doris Ogle died.
“A couple of people have expressed interest,” he said.
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