Contract signed, roundabout construction coming soon

The city of Athens has signed a contract and is ready to begin construction next month for its first roundabout traffic circle at the intersection of Ohio Rt. 682 and Richland Avenue.

Andy Stone, the city's director of engineering and public works, said that after the bidding process, the contract was awarded to Shelly & Sands Inc. of Columbus. The contract was signed Thursday, Stone said, and a Phase 1 schedule is in place.

Initial traffic control will be set up in the first week of April, Stone said, noting that closure of parts of the intersection is slated for April 12.

Phase 1 will have the west part of Rt. 682 shut down completely, and the road down to one lane on the Richland Avenue bridge over the Hocking River. This phase is tentatively scheduled to last until mid-June, according to an infomercial made by Stone on the city's Web site.

Phase 2 is the most restrictive phase and will begin after Ohio University's spring quarter commencement in early June, the infomercial states. That phase will last about a month with the western part of Rt. 682 closed, as well as the southern part of Richland Avenue. One side of the bridge will be open to one-lane traffic in both directions, and the east side of Rt. 682 will also remain open to one-lane traffic in both directions.

During Phase 3, the roundabout will be open and functional, the infomercial says, with only the bridge restricted to one lane in and one lane out, allowing for construction of the other half of the bridge. This phase will last from mid-summer until late August or early September.

The contract came in far below initial design engineering estimates, according to Stone. The Shelly & Sands bid came in around $3.9 million, he said, which is $1.4 million less than the original 5.3 million estimate.

"We are thrilled to death about the bids coming in that low," he said.

With about 80 percent of the money saved being grant money, Stone said, the city will still see about a $300,000 surplus that can be used in other areas such as paving or sewer or water infrastructure.

"They're going to push very hard in the spring," Stone said of construction plans. "The only change, really, from that video is they think that they're going to flip sides of the bridge earlier than we talked about in the video."

Stone said that this means the company may get half of the bridge deck removed and replaced during Phase 1, and then jump to the other side during Phase 2. This won't impact the maintenance of traffic, he said.

"They are shooting for a Phase 3 completion date "“ which is basically all lanes open of the new project "“ for 28 August," he said.

Sept. 3 is the company's incentive date, he said, wherein every day the project is completed before it, the company will receive $50,000.

Phase 4 is slated for the fall, including landscaping work and extra work around the edges, but no roadwork, Stone said.

American Electric Power moved some utilities on Dairy Lane last week in order to get them out of the project's way, Stone said.

The bridge will have four lanes of car traffic when completed, Stone has said. During construction, the bridge will have one lane northbound and one lane southbound open, he continued. Once the project is completed, it will have a 12-foot mixed-use path on the bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists.

A tunnel is planned to go under Rt. 682 so pedestrians and cyclists can safely cross to the other side of the roundabout, Stone's infomercial states. The tunnel will be well lit and ADA-compliant.

In October, Stone said the project was being funded with $4.85 million in grant money from the Federal Highway Administration, being distributed through ODOT and that the city's contribution would be between $500,000 and $800,000. That range has to do partially with the construction bids and partially with the costs of construction engineering, he said at the time. Now, with the construction bid coming in at $3.9 million, the difference in grant money will stay with the federal government.

In Stone's infomercial, he states that the roundabout is the largest public works project that the city has undertaken in a decade. The decision to go forward with the roundabout came after a population boom in the city during the 1990s, the infomercial states. City Council began talks about the roundabout in 2000. Between 2004 and 2007, there have been 73 crashes at the intersection, according to the infomercial, which equates to 2.36 crashes per million vehicles. A safe intersection averages less than one, the infomercial states.