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“Will Trimble Road close at the same time the Home Road/Lexington-Springmill Road intersection is closed? If so, what would be the alternate route to Ontario for those people living in the Home Road/Trimble Road area?”
MANSFIELD — Initial work has begun 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 Trail connector project is complete.
That means Trimble Road, just south of the Akron Children’s Mansfield Health Center, will close for 45 days, beginning Aug. 19, according to city engineer Bob Bianchi.
“People should plan on avoiding Trimble Road (between Cook Road and Marion Avenue) beginning Aug. 19,” the engineer said Tuesday.
The project will be completed well in advance of a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Home Road and Lexington-Springmill Road that is not scheduled to begin until 2026.
Workers with Adena Corp. of Mansfield have already started clearing and grading the area on the west side of Trimble Road near the planned tunnel site. Bianchi said a 30-foot wide stretch of Trimble Road must be removed to complete the tunnel installation.
Once the five-lane road closes, it is not scheduled to reopen until Oct. 3, though the work could be completed sooner, the engineer noted. The entire tunnel project should be complete by the end of October.
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.
Work on the $1.9 million connector trail between the B&O and Trimble Road is scheduled to begin in February and be complete by next fall.
Traffic from Trimble during the road closure will be detoured from Cook Road to Lexington Avenue to Cline Avenue and then Marion, “and vice versa,” Bianchi said.
One alternative route that will not be possible is Woodland Road, according to Bianchi, who said that street will be closed at Marion Avenue while Trimble is closed.
“When we closed Trimble Road in 2017, there was concern about local traffic using Woodland Road. It is not equipped for thru traffic of that magnitude,” he said.
The engineer said some local residents may use Woodhill Road, though that will not be the posted detour route.
Earlier this summer, Bianchi said he feared a shortage of rebar for the box tunnel could delay the tunnel project until September.
Mansfield City Council in March approved the project, which will feature a tunnel 96 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 American Rescue Plan Act dollars approved by Richland 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.
“The sewer and water funds will be used only for sewer- and water-related portions of the project,” Bianchi said.
