As of Thursday, Ohio Department of Transportation officials were still unable to say when major construction on Akron’s Central Interchange will start.
Late Tuesday night, ODOT used social media to alert motorists that the work would be indefinitely postponed. Officials discovered that needed signs were not in place.
The ramp and lane closures from Interstate 77 northbound to Interstate 76 westbound and the ramp from state Route 8 southbound to I-76 westbound were supposed to be posted Tuesday so the project could begin Tuesday night.
“[The contractor] did not have all the appropriate signage with them and some had to still be made, said ODOT spokesman Justin Chesnic. “So once they started installing the signs and we saw that they didn’t have the appropriate signage on their truck and things weren’t going in the right direction, we had to pull the plug.
“The big thing is safety,” he said. “We can close the road, but if we don’t have all the detour signs and appropriate closure signs it’s not going to be very safe.”
The Ohio Department of Transportation has been meeting with the contractor over the past several days to go over the signage checklist. They met Wednesday and Thursday and are scheduled to meet again Friday.
“All I know is they are working their way toward a resolution,” said Chesnic, who has not attended any of the meetings.
He said he didn’t know how much manpower the contractor has or whether it’s the primary contractor (Karvco Cos. in Stow, which does 90 percent of contract work throughout the state) or the subcontractor (A&A Safety out of Cleveland) doing the sign work, but ODOT is overseeing the work and there were some inconsistencies from the plan.
Karvco and A&A Safety representatives were unable to be reached for comment.
“With the ramps we are closing and the detours we’re using, a lot of signs have to be put up. We’re not talking 10 or 15 signs — we’re talking well over 100,” he said. “There are alternate signs, trailblazing signs, which direct you while you’re on the detour route telling you to stay straight or make a right turn, there are also overlays that go over signs. There are a lot of different signs that have to be put up in a lot of different areas.”
The construction project will impact about 35,000 motorists using downtown Akron’s Central Interchange for about three months.
The state agency waited until after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to schedule the major construction project, but officials would not comment on whether the upcoming NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement events in Canton this weekend would cause further delays.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.