Fairchild Bridge Project Behind Schedule

The $25 million Fairchild Avenue Bridge project will enter its sixth year before the last worker leaves the construction site.

The finish date for the massive project, which reroutes several of Kent's busiest intersections, originally projected for December of this year has been pushed back several months.

City and state officials are anticipating a spring 2013 finish, at the earliest, to a project that entered the design phase in November 2007.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said the Ohio Department of Transportation, which manages Federal Stimulus Act dollars and other aspects of the project, recently extended its contract with the firm managing the actual construction, Canton-based Beaver Excavating.

"We're not on the original schedule," Bowling said. "And it does look like the pedestrian bridge … is going to wrap-up in the spring. The actual time in the spring fluctuates simply because we’re going to go through winter."

On budget

The contract extension was done due to delays caused by weather and working with both railroads, CSX Transportation and Akron Barberton Cluster Railway, whose tracks run below and past both new bridges.

The delays did not change the project budget, Bowling said, as the city signed an agreement with ODOT before the project went out to bid stating how much of the cost the city would be responsible for.

"And we’re still working within that number," he said. "Those were extensions, but not cost extensions."

The approximately $25 million project includes $13.25 million in federal money from the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, ODOT and the County Engineers Association of Ohio.

The city has already paid its due for the project and won't pay any more — as long as the project doesn't exceed the original budget.

Secondary work

Chief among the secondary work yet to be finished is the new pedestrian bridge that spans the Cuyahoga River in the same spot where the old Crain Avenue Bridge once stood.

"That’s the last big element," Bowling said.

The main goal of the new pedestrian bridge is to carry The Portage Hike and Bike Trail segment that ends at Lake Street across the river, where it will travel south under the new bridge to link up with Franklin Mills River Edge Park near Brady's Leap.

The bridge itself incorporates utility lines such as phone, cable and sanitary sewer beneath the bridge deck.

As for the deck, Bowling said Beaver had scheduled pouring the concrete on Nov. 12.

"And that was before we saw we may lose this entire week to rain," he said.

In the meantime, three crews are working on different aspects of the project including finishing construction of the intersection of Lake Street with Crain Avenue and North Water Street.

Once finished, the intersection will incorporate: three lanes on Lake Street north of Crain Avenue; and four lanes between Fairchild and Crain avenues with designated curb turning lanes.

Following that, crews have yet to build three retaining walls for the project, add stairs from S.R. 43 down to beneath the new vehicle bridge and finish the stormwater retention area on the east side of the river between both bridges.

"There is a lot of secondary work that still needs to be done," Bowling said. "It’s not minimal, but it’s definitely not the primary work."

Finish date uncertain

Exactly when the orange barrels around the Fairchild Avenue Bridge will disappear is unclear.

ODOT's contract extension with Beaver Excavating gives the firm until the summer of 2013 to finish the entire project.

Bowling said he's hopeful the project will be finished some time in the spring.

"Now it’s pretty much just normal, do what’s in the plans and everything should be fine," he said.