Resurfacing of Lake Road through entirety of Avon Lake set for late summer

AVON LAKE — Commuting from one end of Avon Lake to the other is expected to become smoother for motorists and safer for bicyclists after a resurfacing project planned for late this summer is completed. Lake Road will be repaved through the entire city by the Ohio Department of Transportation, with construction currently scheduled for August. Part of the project will include widening the bike lanes along virtually all of the road from 4 to 5 feet, Mayor Greg Zilka said Tuesday. Though 1 foot may not seem like a big difference, he said it "is going to be a dramatic improvement." Avon Lake officials have been studying and pursuing options for making Lake Road safer for bicycle riders since multiple serious crashes in 2019 highlighted the issue. While ODOT will pay for many costs of the resurfacing project, the city will be responsible for other expenses. Councilwoman Jennifer Fenderbosch, 2nd Ward, said during Monday's collective committee meeting that Avon Lake will end up paying about $1.15 million for construction costs and $76,000 for construction engineering. The city's share includes 20 percent of the total roadway construction and construction engineering costs, as well as all the costs for certain construction items including curbs and sidewalks. ODOT will pay for 80 percent of roadway construction and construction engineering costs. The agency is also responsible for paying preliminary engineering and environmental studies costs except for curb ramp design, which is the city's responsibility. City Council voted unanimously Monday to consent to the project and cooperate with ODOT. Public Works Director Joe Reitz told Council that Avon Lake is the only city in Lorain County that is part of the resurfacing project. Lake Road is part of U.S. Route 6, which travels through all of Lorain County near the Lake Erie shoreline. Zilka said the project is expected to be completed relatively quickly, and it is possible ODOT will complete portions of its work late at night. He said traffic will be maintained, although there will be a few cuts across the road to install storm pipes. A solution will be coordinated to work around rush hour traffic, Zilka said. Solutions also are being explored around the area of the Avon Lake Generating Station, which is expected to largely be demolished at some point after ownership transfers to Charah Solutions this spring. Asked by Fenderbosch how the power plant demolition will affect the resurfacing work, Reitz said he and Zilka had a discussion about working with the trucks that inevitably will frequent the site. "We have some ideas that we would like to share with the police department, in particular, about how those trucks can get off of Lake Road to try to keep that pavement intact," Reitz said. "… I would hate to see all these trucks coming down there, because the truck route would have to be Lake Road to state Route 83 south. We're going to see if we can have some other, alternate routes for some of those vehicles." He said the pavement condition will also be documented on video. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.