Update: Fairchild Bridge Opens Thursday

The new Fairchild Avenue Bridge opens to car and pedestrian traffic Thursday after two years of construction on the span.

City officials will cut the ribbon on the span at 8 a.m. Thursday. Kent Mayor Jerry Fiala will be the first resident to drive over the new bridge.

The bridge, part of a $23 million project that started construction in August 2009, will open at the same time the Crain Avenue Bridge closes to traffic permanently. Both Crain Avenue and North Water Street also will open Thursday.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said the city will hold a quick ribbon-cutting ceremony at the top of the bridge, and they plan to open the span to traffic by 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Brian Dell, the assistant project manager for the bridge at the Ohio Department of Transportation, said portable electronic message boards around Kent will be changed to advise drivers of Thursday's opening.

"We’re going to change the message boards when we actually do open it," Dell said. He said police officers will help direct traffic Thursday in case there are any confused drivers.

The new bridge may be opening, but the project is far from finished.

The next step in the project is demolition of the Crain Avenue Bridge, which the new bridge was designed to replace. A new, pedestrian-only bridge will be built in place of the old bridge and will carry The Portage Hike and Bike Trail across the Cuyahoga River and underneath the Fairchild Avenue Bridge. The pedestrian bridge also will serve to carry water, sewer and other utility lines beneath the Crain Avenue Bridge.

Bowling said that work will continue through the winter.

"The next step is actually going to be to start partial demolition of the old bridge," he said. "And we will be removing the old bridge while temporarily supporting the utilities that are underneath the bridge. And then next spring, we’ll start working on the remaining roadways that need to be finished: S.R. 43, Lake Street, and the intersection of Lake Street, (North) Water Street and Crain Avenue."