MANSFIELD — A Columbus-based engineering firm will be paid $330,240 for construction administration and inspection services for two connective projects related to the B&O Trail.
CTL Engineering was awarded two contracts on Tuesday by the Mansfield Board of Control to oversee a multi-use connector between the trail and the tunnel beneath Trimble Road and also the multi-use path planned along Millsboro Road between Trimble Road and Marion Avenue.
The work has previously been approved by Mansfield City Council.
The company will be paid $234,840 for the connector trail work, about 1.1 miles of an 11-foot-wide path that includes an elevated boardwalk, drainage structures and drainage improvements.
In December, the Board of Control awarded a $1.9 million contract to Adena Corp. of Mansfield to construct a 1.1-mile, multi-use path connecting the B&O Trail to Trimble Road.
CTL Engineering will be paid $95,400 for the smaller project, which will build 3,343 feet of 10-foot-wide, multi-use path on the south side of Millsboro Road.
Also in December, the Board of Control awarded the $608,642 construction project to Smith Paving & Excavating Co. from Norwalk.
CTL Engineering was selected through a process that invites companies to submit qualifications for projects, according to city engineer Bob Bianchi, who said the city received four or five responses.
“We rank the (companies) based on their submittals and qualifications. Then we reach out to the highest ranked, the most qualified, to negotiate a fee proposal,” he said.
He said CTL was the highest-ranked company among those submitting qualifications.
Both projects involve federal funds, requiring stricter inspection and review, which Bianchi described as “more laborious, involved and substantial.”
The $2.1 million connector total project, including design contracts, inspection and required wetlands mitigation, is being funded by $900,000 in federal money through Richland County Regional Planning, $500,000 from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, $450,000 from the Richland County Board of Commissioners through a jail services contract waiver and $150,000 from the state capital budget.
The new, 10-foot wide trail will connect with an already-completed $1.2-million tunnel project beneath Trimble Road that will allow bicyclists and pedestrians to safely cross beneath the busy street.
Adena also handled that tunnel project earlier this year, completing it in October.
Bianchi said work on the new project will begin in February or March and is scheduled to be complete by mid-summer.
The trail along Millsboro Road will be funded entirely through federal and state dollars, Bianchi said, largely through Richland County Regional Planning.
The work will mostly be done in the summer when nearby Discovery School is closed for vacation, he said.
In 2023, Bianchi said he hopes to have another connector along Trimble Road, between Marion Avenue and Millsboro Road, completed by 2028. That would fully connect the B&O Trail to the Mansfield Art Center.
“The plan will be to continue the trail along Marion to the five-way light near downtown,” Bianchi said at that time. “And then continue along Park Avenue into the downtown, most likely ending at Mulberry or Walnut streets.
“The Marion Avenue stretch will be challenging and will take creative planning to make it work,” he said.