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“They should be fixing the bridge on Trimble Road at the U.S. 30 overpass. Every time you cross it there is a long metal piece across the road that need fixed. One day someone is going to pass it and flatten their tires or a wreck.” — Richland Source reader
MANSFIELD — Bob Bianchi has a temporary paving solution planned for a structural issue that is not yet on the Ohio Department of Transportation’s long-term radar.
And it’s a fix that is going to happen sooner, rather than later.
The City of Mansfield engineer said Friday the current problem on the highly-traveled Trimble Road bridge has been caused by bridge deck “lifting” from the approach slab at both ends.
“The northern one is more significant,” he said.
(Photos taken Friday afternoon at the Trimble Road bridge where it crosses over U.S. 30 on Mansfield’s west side. The story continues below the photos.)
The city is responsible for minor maintenance to the bridge while ODOT for significant structural issues, Bianchi said.
The engineer said he contacted ODOT about the problem a few months ago. He said he was told the bridge was not on the agency’s radar, which meant a more permanent fix could be six or seven years away.
“There is no concern over the safety of the bridge. It’s just a nuisance,” he said.
“Rather then wait that long, we submitted a plan to pave over the bridge and over the expansion joints to smooth the entire structure and make the rideability much better over the bridge,” he said.
He said ODOT’s central office approved the plan.
“We’ve added it to the (2024) street resurfacing program,” he said, a annual program underway through a $4.3 million contract with Kokosing Construction Co. to resurface 18.8 miles of Mansfield streets.
The work is funded through the “Pothole Haters Tax,” a 0.25-percent municipal income tax that has been approved by voters every four years since its inception almost four decades ago.
He said the paving will go from south of the bridge to the Speedway station on the north side.
“We are doing a change order to the (original) contract. “We had some extra dollars to be used for contingencies and we will use it out of that,” Bianchi said.
He said the work should be done by mid June at a cost of $14,960.
