“Cleveland Avenue closure creates some confusion” |
| Cleveland Avenue closure creates some confusion Posted: 23 Aug 2010 06:42 PM PDT Raisin Rack manager John Marulli was driving south on Cleveland Avenue NW on Monday morning when he found that his way to work was blocked. City Water Department workers unexpectedly had shut down Cleveland Avenue at 50th Street NW to install a waterline. And a contractor also was scheduled that morning to close Cleveland Avenue at 47th Street NW for a week, so workers could dig up and replace an aging storm sewer pipe. Both the Water Department and the City Engineer's Office wanted to perform the excavation work before the final two layers of asphalt are applied to complete the city's $1.8 million resurfacing project on Cleveland Avenue from 12th Street NW to 50th Street NW. Marulli found that Raisin Rack at 4629 Cleveland Ave. NW was cut off from the normal Cleveland Avenue traffic from the north and south. Customers could only access the business by a detour through side streets. City Engineer Dan Moeglin said he thought the Water Department was only supposed to close two of the four lanes of Cleveland Avenue at 50th Street NW. "There was some confusion about that," he said around noon. "We're working right now to get that resolved so he has access." MISCOMMUNICATION Water Department Superintendent Tyler Converse couldn't be reached for comment late Monday afternoon. His boss, City Service Director Warren Price, expressed regret there was no announcement of the closure. Price said that he didn't know the specifics of why the entire road at 50th Street was closed. He said he was told that it was to mobilize equipment and someone on the work crew "made a decision out in the field to close it." Price didn't anticipate that all four lanes at 50th Street would be closed again, but he said if that happens, he has told Converse to alert all surrounding businesses. Water workers eventually opened two lanes of traffic at 50th Street NW and then resumed traffic at all four lanes by 3:30 p.m. But Price said they will continue their work to install a waterline to connect lines east and west of Cleveland Avenue NW during the next few days. He said once the waterline project is finished, at a cost of a couple thousand dollars, it will address the low-pressure problems of the water system in that area. PIPE REPLACEMENT All four lanes of Cleveland Avenue at 47th Street NW are scheduled to be closed until Monday. Motorists can detour via 44th Street NW, Vernon Avenue NW and 47th Street NW. Moeglin said contractors Shelly Companies, of Twinsburg, and Dempsey Excavating, of Canton, are excavating a hole 80 feet long, 30 feet wide and at least 25 feet deep. They then will replace an aging 60-foot-long storm sewer pipe dating to the 1970s that crosses underneath Cleveland Avenue and carries rain water to Nimishillen Creek. Moeglin said the old pipe already had changed in shape, causing the old asphalt above it to dip slightly. "We wanted to make sure this piece was taken care of," said Moeglin. "Because we don't want to touch Cleveland Avenue for 10 to 15 years." After workers refill the hole, the paving contractors will within about two weeks after that apply the final layers of asphalt north of 28th Street, smoothing out the pavement around the manhole covers, which had effectively become speed bumps. MORE SIGNAGE NEEDED Some Raisin Rack customers said Monday afternoon that they were able to navigate their way through, but while they understood why the work had to be done, some felt there should have been more prominent signage announcing the road closure and describing the detour. Bob Meek, the owner of the Quizno's at 4630 Cleveland Ave. NW, estimates the work will cost him 20 percent of his business for a week. But he said a few years ago, when North Canton shut down S. Main Street for months to replace a bridge, he lost substantially more traffic. "We weathered that. We'll weather this," he said. "We have customers who'll find a way to get here." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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