MANSFIELD — Trimble Road will remain open in Mansfield this summer.
That’s because of a longer-than-expected delivery time for the rebar that will be used to reinforce a 100-foot-long concrete box planned for a tunnel beneath the road, according to City of Mansfield engineer Bob Bianchi.
Rebar, short for “reinforcing bar” or “reinforcement bar,” is a metal bar used to help increase the tensile strength of concrete.
Bianchi said he hoped for the work to begin in June on a $1.2-million tunnel project beneath Trimble Road that will allow bicyclists and pedestrians to safely cross beneath the busy street when an accompanying planned B&O Bike Trail connector project is complete.
Instead, he said, the bulk of the work by Adena Corp. will likely be delayed until mid September. The rebar is constructed and the concrete poured around it offsite by a sub-contractor, according to the engineer.
“This (delay) is beyond the contractor’s control,” the engineer said, adding the earliest expected delivery date for the concrete box tunnel is Sept. 13.
“I imagine (Adena) will be out there doing (prep) work prior to that off the roadway,” Bianchi said, “perhaps in mid to late August.”
He said he still hopes the project will be completed by the end of 2024.
“We are keeping an eye on the schedule and hope to have it constructed by the end of the year,” Bianchi said.
The engineer has said a section of Trimble Road will likely be closed for 45 days once the project begins.
City Council in March approved the project, which will go under Trimble Road a few hundred feet south of Raemelton Boulevard (Akron Children’s Hospital).
It will be 100 feet in length, 15 feet wide and almost 11 feet high.
According to Bianchi, the tunnel under the 63-foot wide road will be funded by:
— $700,000 from Richland County American Rescue Plan Act through county commissioners;
— $250,000 from the city’s ARPA;
— $200,000 from the Richland County Foundation;
— $91,123 from the city’s permissive sales tax;
— $61,597 from the city sewer fund;
— $67,915 from the city water fund.
“This is an exciting project,” Bianchi told Mansfield City Council. “The goal, the vision, is (ultimately) connecting that (bike) trail into the downtown.”
It’s a key part of the larger project that officials began discussing in the fall of 2022 that will see a 1.25-mile, 10-foot wide multi-use path constructed from a parking lot about 250 feet south of the Marion Avenue and B&O Trail intersection to — and then under — Trimble Road.
A contract for that connector will likely be awarded in January with construction in the spring of 2025, he said.
Bianchi has said the tunnel will have a 75-year design life with internal lighting and security cameras.
Bianchi previously said the tunnel was the best, safest option as opposed to a traffic control device, rapid flashing beacons or a bridge over the road.
The engineer said the road closure will be necessary.
“We closed it in 2017 during the widening project, and we’re going to have to do it again. The detour will be Cook Road to Lexington Avenue to Cline Avenue and to Marion Avenue,” he said.
