Elyria Council approves Oberlin Road diet

ELYRIA — Oberlin Road will be narrowed to three lanes after the Elyria City Council voted Monday to go out for bids on a proposed road diet project. The project will see Oberlin Road between Middle Avenue and the Elyria border reduced from four lanes to three lanes, with one lane in each direction of travel and a center left-turn lane. The traffic light that currently sits at the intersection of West Avenue and Oberlin Road will be removed and replaced with stop signs on either side of West Avenue. Oberlin Road traffic will no longer stop at the intersection. Some Elyria officials have said they would prefer to keep the traffic light at the intersection, but the intersection does not meet federal requirements to warrant a light, City Engineer John Schneider said last week. Because the project is receiving federal money, it must abide by federal guidelines. The work will be taken on under an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation and will be funded primarily by federal money through the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, or NOACA. The funding split will be 80-20, with NOACA providing $966,994 to the project and the city committing $241,686, though Schneider said that the project would likely cost less than that amount because it had originally accounted for a new traffic light. Schneider said that the city may plan to further work with ODOT in relation to the road diet because ODOT and Lorain County have plans to install a roundabout just to the south of Elyria at the intersection of Oberlin-Elyria Road and LaGrange Road. Oberlin Road becomes Oberlin-Elyria Road after it crosses the Elyria border into Carlisle Township. He said that the roundabout project may also include a road diet narrowing Oberlin-Elyria Road from the Elyria border to the intersection, according to the county. The Elyria project will also add flashing pedestrian crossing beacons across West Avenue on the southern side of the intersection and across Oberlin-Elyria Road just to the west. West Avenue will also be reduced to two lanes from the intersection north to 16th Street, with parking lanes added on each side. Schneider said that the plan is currently before ODOT for final approval. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.