Road Construction Dragging On

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By: Aaron Moorman, West Social Media Editor

In any urban environment, there are going to be periodic construction projects to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure used on a daily basis by residents. Sometimes, only resurfacing or filling in various potholes is required. Often, however, the widening of heavily-traveled roads and adding turning-only lanes is needed to help relieve traffic congestion. Such is the case of W. Pleasant Valley Road in Parma, OH; any student attending the Western campus of Tri-C will be familiar with this road project. Yet, anyone who is familiar with the ongoing construction at the southern edge of the campus, has been undoubtedly asking how long this work is going to take.

As many residents will probably recall, there has been construction work on W. Pleasant Valley Road around Spring/Summer of 2014. It’s now almost 3 years later, and we cannot help but wonder what is taking the crews so long to finish. While most of us likely understand the necessity of maintaining our roads, we also experience on a daily basis what a double-edged sword it is. Traffic is re-routed to other streets when W. Pleasant Valley was fully closed, which only adds to the burden on nearby routes. Even when it has been partially open, traffic is usually still pretty rough, which can result in people getting to their jobs and classes late.

Though it may not seem like it, the project currently being worked on is not the same as the one that began in 2014. The work being done now is actually a separate project, that began earlier this year in March. According to the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, who last provided an update on their website October 7, 2016, the expectation is for work to be completed by October 2017. Naturally, however, this is only an estimate, and it shouldn’t be too surprising if the work isn’t done by then. The whole project is costing the county approximately $23 million, as reported on www.cleveland.com.

Delays are often a fact of life in the construction industry, and in fact, in this case the major delay is due to “delayed utility relocation work”. The matter has been deemed urgent, and could not have been avoided.

In the end, though we all have grown weary of dealing with the endless orange barrels, the widened road and resurfaced pavement will be so much better for drivers to enjoy. There will always be other roads being worked on, but as some may have noticed, parts of Pleasant Valley Road are already beginning to clear up. The whole project may not be expected to finish until Fall 2017, but thankfully that doesn’t mean we won’t end up with some relief before then.

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