MANSFIELD — The first 90 days may be the toughest of the $19.3 million Main Street Corridor Improvement Project underway in downtown Mansfield, a 20-month project scheduled for completion in October 2026.
While the bulk of the work will be done in sections, the first section that began Feb. 24 is replacing century-old water mains from Fifth Street to First Street, work that encompasses nearly the length of the entire project.
That was a topic for discussion late Thursday afternoon during an hour-long public meeting on the project at Downtown Mansfield, Inc., whose offices at 128 N. Main St. literally open onto the active construction site.
The project will also convert Main Street into two-way traffic.
“It is a tough, tough construction process,” city engineer Bob Bianchi said of the water main replacement work. “You’ve got to move through an active intersection. You have got to work at night … sometimes during the day.
“You have got to connect to every single waterline utility and make sure the business knows when they’re going to be shut down for an hour or two (and) accommodate their schedules. So there’s a lot to it,” Bianchi said.
“Once we get to more of the streetscape work, it’s more surface level construction, you know what you’ve got and you don’t have surprises like you do with underground construction,” he said.
Those underground “surprises” involve various buried storm sewers, sanitary sewers, gas lines, utility lines and wires that are not necessarily on anyone’s maps of the street, according to Ted Wellman, area manager for Kokosing Construction, which was awarded the overall project.
“A lot of things that weren’t supposed to be there, extra services … unknown … not sure what this line … not sure what that line is …. a lot of maybe some old electric communication lines, but engineers work around these,” Wellman said.
“We’ve been doing a lot of potholing to try and find those unknowns before we get there,” he said, adding the company hopes to be done with the water main replacement work by the end of May.
Though it’s one of the biggest projects in recent Mansfield history, it’s what Kokosing is used to doing, according to Wellman.
The company, founded in Fredericktown in 1951 and now headquartered in Westerville, is one of the largest family-owned construction companies in the midwest with around 4,000 employees.
“We build new roads. We repave roads. We have an asphalt plant right here in Mansfield. We’ve been part of Mansfield for quite a few years. This is what we do. There are a lot of decorative elements in this project that will improve the appearance of the town. We are looking forward to that,” Wellman said.
DMI’s offices were filled Thursday by local business leaders and residents eager to learn more about a project that has roots dating back seven years.
Seeds of the project were planted in Austin, Texas.
Bianchi, Jennifer Kime, CEO of Downtown Mansfield Inc. and Mayor Jodie Perry, then the president and CEO of Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development, traveled to Austin with 12 other local residents as part of Mansfield Rising, which is when the idea for improving Main Street began.
The project will be a complete upgrade of Main Street from First to Sixth streets and Park Avenue from Main to Diamond streets, designed by K.E. McCartney & Associates of Mansfield.
Brent Rossman, communication specialist with DMI, told the audience that 82 percent of the funding for the project is coming from non-local government funds, including a $7.3 million federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant secured in 2022.
After the meeting, Perry said she was pleased with the turnout.
“I was really excited by the turnout, to be honest with you, because you never know who’s gonna give up their time to come out and hear about what’s happening.
“I think it shows a lot of people care,” the mayor said.
“I think the (audience) questions were all largely what I expected … specifics about maybe how things were going to happen or timing and a few of those larger philosophy kinds of questions like ‘Why are we doing it?’ and things like that,” Perry said.
The mayor said she is pleased with the progress she has seen in the last several weeks.
“There’s always going to be pain points with a project like this, but we’ve really tried to mitigate that as much as possible. There are some days you get a few surprises here and there, but they’ve been good and responsive to us when we’ve had concerns,” Perry said.
During his presentation, Rossman outlined the project’s nine stages and stressed that at least one lane of Main Street will remain open during nearly all of the construction process.
“Businesses will be open, accessible to the public. Pedestrians will be able to access their favorite shops, restaurants. Whatever you use downtown for, you can still do that.
“We’re encouraging the public to come out to continue to support local businesses as we go through this,” Rossman said.
To motorists simply driving southbound through the city, officials encouraged them to use Mulberry Street as an alternative.
(Below is a PDF with the presentation provided Thursday afternoon during a Main Street Improvement Project public meeting at Downtown Mansfield, Inc., 128 N Main St.)
Perry welcomed the group at the beginning of the meeting and said communication was essential to the success of the project.
“We wanted to make sure that we went through the process with a lot of public involvement, making sure that we’re communicating what we’re planning,” she said.
“We looked at other cities that did things that were successful and helped their downtowns during these really big transformational projects. We did see a few that maybe didn’t do the things that they should have done and one of the biggest things was communication … not a shock, right?
“People want to know what you’re doing, what’s going to change, how is that going to impact everything,” the mayor said.
“Tonight is a really good first step at that. If you’re not getting the text message (updates), sign up,” she said.
She encouraged residents to visit the city’s web page devoted to the project at https://engineering-mansfield.hub.arcgis.com/pages/main-street-streetscape-project, which can also be accessed using the QR code below.
At that site, residents can also sign up for text and email updates on the project.
