The Ohio Public Works grant requires its recipients to match a portion of funds. In this case, the school district and the engineer’s office will contribute $250,000 each, resulting in the necessary $500,000 match. In total, $1.9 million will be allotted to the improvement project with 74% of the project cost being covered through OPWC grant funding.
OPWC funding typically is allotted to one or two local projects annually, Clark County Assistant Engineer Paul DeButy said.
DeButy told the News-Sun that design plans for the project are in the works, with a bid for construction going out later this year. The same design consultant that the school district has used for its ongoing construction projects, Kleinegers, will be the design consultant for the Middle Urbana Road improvement, DeButy said.
The improvements will stretch down Middle Urbana Road from Rt. 334 to Moorefield Road, DeButy said. The engineer noted improvements to Middle Urbana Road should begin in Spring of 2022, with a majority of the work happening while students are out of school for summer break.
Increased traffic to the Kenton Ridge school area that will result from district consolidation called for the necessity of additional traffic safety features. Northeastern Local School District Superintendent John Kronour said a traffic study of the area surrounding the new Kenton Ridge location found that the installation of a traffic light and turn lanes would best sort the collected traffic.
The consolidation of Northeastern School District buildings into a centralized site is expected to be completed by spring of 2023, Kronour said.
The district is building two new campuses at a cost of $120 million with the state paying about 40%. One campus is adjacent to the current South Vienna school and will be Northeastern PreK-12, the second campus is located on the property near the current Kenton Ridge High School and will become Kenton Ridge PreK-12.
“We really appreciate the partnership with the engineer’s office,” Supt. Kronour said. “They did a great job of securing dollars for this project.”
Facts & Figures
$1.9M: Total amount to be allocated for improvement of Middle Urbana Road
$1.4M: Amount of state grant to be allocated to the project
$250K: Amount Northeastern Local Schools and Clark County Engineer’s Office will each contribute to project
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