MADISON TOWNSHIP — A $1.5 million intersection improvement/roundabout project at the Cook/Illinois and Mansfield-Lucas roads intersection may be complete by the end of the first week in August.
Richland County Engineer Adam Gove said Monday that workers with Shelly and Sands of Mansfield need to put down additional layers of asphalt, complete grading and seeding and install lighting.
“They are shooting for the end of the first week in August, maybe the middle of the week, as long as the weather cooperates and things go as planned,” Gove said.
The engineer said the work is 10 to 14 days ahead of schedule.
“They were hoping to be done by this time. But we had a couple of weather delays and some delays in concrete work,” Gove said. “We are nearing the finish line.”
He said the engineer’s office will post on its website and Facebook page instructions on how to correctly use roundabouts.
The intersection was closed on May 31 and construction was expected to be completed within 75 days before the 2022-2023 school year begins with Madison South Elementary School nearby.
Construction costs were estimated at $1,353,906, according to Gove, who said a grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation will cover 90 percent of those costs.
A grant from the Richland County Regional Planning Commission will cover 90 percent of inspection costs, estimated to be around $150,000 once the work is complete.
The proposal would increase safety at one of the county’s most dangerous intersections, Gove said in 2019.
A Richland County Planning Commission study a few years ago identified it as the ninth worst intersection in the county overall and the worst among those under the county’s jurisdiction.
Gove said there were 21 crashes at the intersection between 2015-2018, averaging five to six per year. Fifteen of the wrecks resulted in injuries.
He said planners considered a roundabout and a traffic signal system, determining the former was the best and safest way to proceed.
It will be the second roundabout in the county. The only other one was constructed in 2012 by the City of Mansfield at the intersection of Middle-Bellville and Straub roads at a cost of $500,000.
