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New Ironton-Russell Bridge moving ahead
Published Tuesday, November 24, 2009
I was recently asked to update the citizens of Ironton on the status of the new construction of the Ironton-Russell Bridge.
As you may recall the new bridge was scheduled to be built in 2007. That project date was pushed back to 2013 due to state funding issues.
When I became mayor in December of 2007, I made it a priority to do what I could and meet with the Ohio Department of Transportation officials and other elected officials in efforts to get this project moved up in a timely manner.
During my first 60 days of taking office I met with Gov. Ted Strickland and officials from the Ohio Department of Transportation in Columbus. Two major components were accomplished as a result of this meeting. First, The Ohio Department of Transportation prohibited commercial vehicles from crossing the bridge as well as vehicles measuring over seven feet and six inches. Second, and most important, was that the new construction of the bridge was moved up from 2013 to September 2011, (bid opening).
Over the past several months I have met with employees of ODOT, on site, to discuss various issues such as water and sewer lines that may have to be re-located due to the construction of the new bridge.
Upon my request, employees from ODOT came to Ironton and attended a city council meeting in September of 2009 to give a presentation on the new construction and publicly stated that the bid opening would be in September of 2011 as well as showing renditions of the proposed new bridge.
It is my intention to continue to work closely with officials from ODOT to ensure that this project, that is so vitally important to our community remain on schedule as stated and come to fruition.
I feel that it is important to meet with our Ohio state elected officials on a regular basis in efforts to improve our relationship, identify our needs and obtain the benefits that the citizens of Ironton deserve.
Rich Blankenship is the mayor of Ironton, Lawrence County’s seat of government.
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Comments
Posted by Country (anonymous) on November 24, 2009 at 12:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The title said moving ahead but what is moving ahead? Nothing in this article stated that anything new was going on. The bid opening is 2011.
Posted by ramss01 (anonymous) on November 24, 2009 at 3:29 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Right on,,,The bidding would begin in September 2011 ? This is a distraction to the people, a smoke screen,. The bidding is a 6 month process itself. Then you have to look them over and decide which to accept, do the surveys, obtain permits, etc,,,,,,,this will not be done before 2013 wait and see !!!!
Posted by bystander (anonymous) on November 24, 2009 at 3:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
will not begin building until 2013. Smoke screen I agree.
Posted by BigBob (anonymous) on November 24, 2009 at 5:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ahh, come on, give Hizoner a break. He did get the bid process moved forward 2 years. It would have been nice if it all had started in '07 as planned but remember ODOT figured it would bid around 90M or so and the lowest was 130M or so. Why? It was overdesigned (1 super tall support mid-stream instead of 2 smaller ones & it would accomodate a bike lane) and fuel costs (construction vehicles don't run on pixie dust) at that time were $4 for a gallon of gasoline and even higher for diesel.
Hey, speaking of oil prices in '07 I'll remind y'all that we've plenty of oil off the east and west coasts but there's a certain politcal party that has blocked development of it for years. The political party's name begins with a "D" and ends in RAT.
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