Road projects planned in Bryan, Madison Township

The Madison Township project is a full-depth reconstruction of about a one mile section of Township Road 15 (which is also called County Road 15), southeast of Pioneer, between County Road R to the north and U.S. 20 to the south.

Partial funding for both will come from the county’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Critical Infrastructure program, and the projects were chosen from both a needs assessment and feedback from the local community, according to Adam Panas and Dennis Miller, of the Maumee Valley Planning Organization (MVPO).

Panas said in Bryan, the old, cast iron water lines in the 400 to 900 black of South Lynn Street — from Wilson to South streets — will be replaced. The lines are at least 50 years old and their ongoing deterioration causes multiple issues, such as when the lines break, causing contamination. Yet residents still need to use water, forcing the city to issue a boil advisory — during which residents boil their water to purify it for any kind of hygienic related purpose, such as drinking, bathing and washing clothes — while repairs are made.

In addition, the lines were installed more than five decades ago as four-inch diameter lines. However, the State of Ohio has since updated its fire hydrant standards to a six-inch minimum.

“And keep in mind that’s the minimum, so not only is it out of compliance, (but) perhaps more importantly, your firefighting capacity is really limited in those blocks. So, that means that if you have a house fire and ... it’s small, it carries a volume of water that would probably suffice,” Panas told commissioners.

However, he added, in the case of a larger fire, the current volume of water is insufficient.

The project, Panas said, will solve both a public health and public safety issue.

Miller said the funding would consist of $265,000 from CDBG for construction, $20,000 to MVPO for administrative fees, $275,000 through the Ohio Public Works Commission and $60,000 from the City of Bryan, for a total of $620,000.

The CDBG application must still be approved and Miller estimated the decision on the grant approval would be in by September. The environmental review could be completed by the end of the year, with a project start date in 2023.

Township Road 15

Panas and Miller said Township Road 15 was selected for CDBG funding to address extreme deterioration of the road and edges of the road due to excessive use and weather, leading to ruts and ponding water that in turn cause hazardous driving conditions along with the possible threat of sinkholes, though that has not happened yet.

Panas also noted that Township Road 15 “is not some side road or anything like that. It is one of the main routes in and out of the Village of Pioneer and it is used by a lot of vehicles and the reason the road looks like this ... is because of construction traffic detours associated with the Village of Pioneer’s State Street reconstruction project.”

He said the plan is to apply for $470,000 through the Critical Infrastructure grant, an amount which is close to the maximum allowable.

The breakdown is $450,000 toward construction, $20,000 for MVPO administrative fee and $55,975.10 earmarked by the commissioners. Panas said the plan is to apply for OPWC funds to reimburse the county’s outlay, and in the case it is not awarded those funds, the Village of Pioneer and Madison Township would split the cost of the reimbursement.

Miller added that in conjunction with this project, the William County Engineer’s Office will perform repair work on the edges of Township Road 15 from County Road R north to Baubice Street

In response to a question by Commissioner Lew Hilkert, Miller said he was unaware of any additional funds set aside by the state to make repairs to roads due to additional traffic from any nearby road construction, though he would confer with County Engineer Todd Roth to see if he was aware of any additional funding sources.

Miller did note the county is allowed only three active critical infrastructure projects at one time, so the plan is to close the active ones as soon as possible to apply for additional funds.

“We are always going to be working towards that, so we’ve got options to apply for more funding,” Miller said.

Local resident Lou Pendleton, who attended the meeting, also asked Miller if Township Road 15 was going to be expanded or just reconstructed to the same width, and if it is being reconstructed to increase load capacity.

“It will be reconstructed on the current alignment, it won’t be widened,” Miller said. “They’ll do full-depth reconstruction where they will be milling (off the old asphalt) and maybe grinding in cement, (a) base cement, to improve the base, and then resurfacing it with asphalt.

“Indirectly it will improve the ability of the road to carry loads, but that isn’t why we are doing it. Our intention isn’t to make it a haul route or anything like that. It is just to improve it back to the condition it was in prior to it being damaged by the construction traffic,” Miller said.

“It’s more for the general health of that infrastructure, because right now it is very substandard to say the least,” Panas added.

Asked by Pendleton why Township Road 15 was chosen, Miller said it was identified by the county engineer and during the preview process as one of the county roads in the worst condition.

Commission President Terry Rummel said the road was an obvious priority because it has carried so much additional traffic recently as an alternate route with the road project on State Street/Ohio 15 going on through Pioneer.

“(Township Road) 15 has got a lot of traffic on in it ... the trucks, it is hard to keep them off of it, especially when State Route 15 is closed,” Rummel said.