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Townhip seeks funds for Grener project
(by Sandi Latimer, Staff Writer - August 13, 2009)
With the southern portion of South Grener Road under reconstruction, Prairie Township Trustees will seek additional funds that would finish rebuilding and rerouting the street.
Trustees will apply for nearly a $ 1.8 million grant in Ohio Public Works Commission funds and a $596,921 no-interest loan to complete the project in far eastern Prairie Township.
“We hope we are successful in getting the funds,” said George Groom, project manager with Stantec Consulting Engineering Services.
“We’re in competition with every other municipality for the money,” said Heather Bowden, the company’s transportation planner.
The money is needed for phase three of the project, which calls for putting down a new road and rerouting it at the northern end to move the intersection with West Broad. The current street would then be closed at Broad.
Groom expects the southern portion - from Sullivant Avenue to Stiles - to be completed by late September. This work includes a new road surface and sidewalks on the east side of the street.
The second phase - from Stiles to Home Depot - will begin late in the fall and be finished in early 2010.
Phase three, for which these new funds would will be used, would start early in 2011 and be finished by the end of that year. When completed, Grener Road would be rerouted to Broad Street by way of what is now the parking lot behind the Speedway station and come out at the light at Old Village and West Broad Street.
That is a traffic pattern that is used quite frequently now by motorists since westbound motorists can not make a left turn onto Grener from Broad.
“It’ll be a lot safer,” Bowden said, adding that in the past three years, a majority of the accidents on Grener have occurred at the intersection with West Broad Street.
Groom hasn’t determined a traffic pattern during the third phase of the work. It’s possible traffic could be maintained to get to local businesses. However, when the work is completed, a barricade of some kind will be erected where Grener currently intersects with West Broad Street.
That would allow motorists coming from the south to reach businesses on the northern end of the street past where the new road will split off to the west. But westbound motorists on Broad Street would have to go to the light at Old Village a few feet to the west to make a left turn to get onto Grener.
Trustees also voted to seek similar funds to redo Woodlawn Avenue, a few blocks west of Grener. This request will be for $1.87 million in OPWC funds and a $79,505 no-interest loans.
If the request is successful, construction work would begin in 2011. When finished, Woodlawn would have sidewalks on both sides of the street, as well as curbs, gutters and a new water line.
Groom pointed out that these are competitive grants, and applying for them is not assured. He said the township had lost out twice when it applied for funds to improve Gladys Road.
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