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Men working in Harmar

7 curb ramps first on city’s work list this summer

Seven curb ramps in Harmar will be the first to see repairs as the city’s curb ramp and paving project gets underway this week.

Then an additional 18 on the east side of Marietta will follow suit, getting torn up and redone to the most up-to-date Americans with Disabilities Act specifications for grade and slope.

“The curbs need redone when the roads are redone,” said Dave Hendrickson, project manager for the city. “We use the city of Columbus’s standard drawings for those so that you have an appropriate grade. That way if you’re in a wheelchair it’s not so much of an angle that you’re apt to tip over.”

Market Street from Franklin Street to Gilman Avenue was the first to see curb ramps removed Monday then work at Franklin Street’s intersection with Putnam Avenue was stalled by a brief downpour.

“We don’t want to dig in the rain and make huge mud holes if we can help it,” said Foreman Dustin Jones, of Waterford, who works for Shelly and Sands, the contractor performing the city project. “We’re just digging up the worst ramps and will have them roped off so we can refill to the right slope.”

City Engineer Joe Tucker said Monday that last year’s average city cost per curb ramp was between $3,000 and $4,000 but depending on the terrain and surroundings of a ramp the cost can range from $2,000 to $6,000.

“You’re interfacing with the street and a lot of the times you have to consider drainage, whether your work will hurt a tree’s roots and if trees need removed, whether there are utilities to work around,” he said. “I think we’re making good progress overall with our ADA curb ramps, especially within the past 10 years.”

The project has been going on at least since 2005, he said.

Shelly and Sands estimated last year that approximately half of the city’s intersections have ADA-compliant curb ramps and Tucker said Monday a new asset management system is currently being utilized to catalog not only curb ramps, but all city street signs, guard rails and roads in the city.

“We just implemented the software and the long-term goal is that it will provide a mapping mechanism so that we can track fully where we’re at in the coming years,” said Tucker. “I hope that we can have a major piece of it done by the end of next year.”

Jones said the curb ramps are the first to see work before the roads in the city’s resurfacing plan are milled and repaved.

Hendrickson explained that is done so that the asphalt meets the edge of the ramp without creating an incline from the curb to scale.

“Move the road to meet the ramp,” he said. “But we’re only replacing where we’re paving.”

Roads to be paved throughout the city include Franklin Street from Putnam Avenue to Lancaster Street, Market Street from Franklin Street to Gilman Avenue, Tenth Street from Washington Street to Warren Street, Warren Street from Fifth to Seventh streets and Montgomery Street from Third to Fifth streets.

“The paving will start immediately after the curb ramps are done,” said Engineering Office Manager Tina Lones. “It all gets wrapped into one.”

In total the project bid was for $492,922 out of the streets budget for the city for the year and is projected to conclude Sept. 29.

That project, and the engineering, inspection and any contingency monies needed are funded through a Ohio Public Works grant of $300,000, a $100,000 loan and a $140,000 local match.

William Pugh, 68, said the last time the city paved his block of Franklin Street between Putnam and Lancaster was right after he first moved in seven years ago.

“The potholes get bad in the winter,” he said. “It doesn’t stay long when they put the mix in before they go down again.”

Pugh said he plans to call Peoples Bank to ask if he can park in their Harmar lot on Putnam when his street is milled and paved.

“It shouldn’t take too many days but there’s not a lot of parking around the corner (on Lancaster) so that would be the closest place,” he said. “Though there aren’t too many of us that can’t park in the back of their houses. I just don’t have a driveway.”

Bill Pryor, owner of A Jordan Salon at the corner of Seventh and Warren streets, said he just plans to let his customers know to reroute their plans for appointments.

“People can come in from Seventh since that’s where our parking is,” he said. “I’ve lived through this before and people always find a way through the obstacles in Marietta.”

But since the majority of this year’s project is residential the majority of the impact will be those trying to park on the street outside their homes and six bus drivers headed from the middle school to the high school.

“Basically I’ve got to approve the routes and on stuff like this, where it’s temporary I can give a verbal approval to take an alternate route while they’re paving,” said Darrell Prim, facilities and transportation manager for Marietta City Schools. “The only one that will affect us is the paving on Montgomery from Third to Fifth because our middle school buses usually turn down Montgomery from Fourth headed from the middle school to the high school.”

2017 asphalt repaving in Marietta

¯ Franklin Street from Putnam Avenue to Lancaster Street.

¯ Market Street from Franklin Street to Gilman Avenue.

¯ Tenth Street from Washington Street to Warren Street.

¯ Warren Street from Fifth to Seventh streets.

¯ Montgomery Street from Third to Fifth streets.

Source: Marietta City Engineering.

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