MANSFIELD — The B&O Trail is now about 3,300 feet closer to downtown Mansfield.
City engineer Bob Bianchi told the city’s Board of Control on Tuesday the new concrete path on the south side of Millsboro Road between Trimble Road and Marion Avenue is nearly complete.
The construction project to create the 10-foot wide, multi-use path has about a $750,000 price tag, all of which is coming from federal and state funds, according to Bianchi.
It has also required about 1,300 tons of concrete, he said.
(Below are photos taken Tuesday morning showing segments of a new 3,300-foot multi-use path on the south side of Millsboro Road between Trimble Road and Marion Avenue. Photos include a brick crosswalk and concrete curb ramps at the intersection with Marion Avenue.)
“It’s beautiful and it went in so fast,” said Finance Director Kelly Converse, a Board of Control member, along with Mayor Jodie Perry and Safety Service Director Keith Porch.
Bianchi said the project is about 95-percent complete and should be finished in about a month, nearly the same time as the 1.1-mile connector path between the B&O Trail and Trimble Road.
He said a section of concrete must still be poured where a utility has to be relocated near the intersection of Millsboro and Trimble Roads. That relocation is expected next week.
Bianchi said the city is also still awaiting the delivery of lighted bollards that will be installed where the new path “meanders” through the property of the Mansfield Art Center as it approaches Marion Avenue.
Work on the trail along Millsboro Road began in the spring with the removal of trees and growth along the south side of the road. That work had to done between Oct. 15 and March 31 due to federal requirements protecting the endangered Indiana Brown Bat population.
Construction work was then paused until Discovery School at 855 Millsboro Road finished its 2024-2025 academic year, Bianchi said.
Once that 10-foot-wide trail is complete this summer — and the connector trail between the B&O and Trimble Road is done — bicyclists and walkers will be able to safely move from the bike trail to the Mansfield Art Center, without having to be on the roads.
A ribbon cutting for that connector trail, which includes a tunnel beneath Trimble Road, is planned Oct. 4.
Bianchi said plans are in the works to improve a remaining section of the sidewalk, about eighth tenths of a mile, along Trimble as it heads toward Millsboro.
(Below are photos showing a segment of the sidewalk still to be improved along Trimble Road as it approaches Millsboro Road.)
He said the city is beginning preliminary engineering on that section of work this fall with a final design completed in 2026.
“We are looking to construct that section using grant funds, most likely in 2028,” Bianchi said.
Eventually, Bianchi said, the city hopes to make improvements along Marion Avenue into the downtown.
Also on Tuesday, the Board of Control approved a $1 million contract with Delta Airport Consultants to oversee and administer a $7.5 million rehabilitation project in 2026 on the longest runway at Mansfield Lahm Regional Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration is paying for 95 percent of the work and the Ohio Department of Transportation is covering the remaining 5 percent.
The board in July approved a $6,518,916 construction contract with Kokosing Construction, which submitted the lowest of three bids for the project.
The work is expected to begin in the spring on runway 14-32.
Delta Consultants will handle the inspection/quality assurance on the project on the $1 million separate contract. The company, headquartered in Virginia, has an office in Cleveland.
The project will largely consist of putting down a new asphalt surface on the 9,001-foot long runway, which is 150 feet wide.
