The-News-Leader.com - Emergency Twinsburg Road access still an issue

by Jeff Saunders

Reporter

Northfield Center -- The Ohio Department of Transportation said it is still trying to devise plans for emergency access to Twinsburg Road from Route 8. But removing construction barricades at the intersection, as township officials did May 9, will not be an option in a few weeks.

"A bridge is being built over Twinsburg Road, Route 8 will be elevated close to 20 feet and Twinsburg Road will be lowered 5 or 6 feet," said Jerry Jones, spokesperson for ODOT's District 4 office in Akron May 21. "In addition, there will be a ditch across Twinsburg Road where the bridge's footers, the foundation, will be."

Township Trustee Paul Buescher said he was not happy with the situation that arose May 9, when an accident at Twinsburg and Walters roads left residents in two nearby developments unable to drive out of their neighborhoods -- and school buses and emergency vehicles unable to get to the homes, either, until the barricades were pushed aside.

Buescher sent an e-mail May 21 to Gov. Ted Strickland.

"I genuinely fear that someone is going to die due to this dangerous situation and am pleading for your intervention on this matter," wrote Buescher.

"I'm trying to exhaust every avenue open to us," Buescher told the News Leader.

Buescher said ODOT presented some suggestions to local officials at a May 16 meeting, but he did not see them as "workable answers," to the area construction, which is expected to continue until 2008.

The suggestions included construction by ODOT of a possible access across private property and to have heavy equipment on call to build an emergency access.

Trustee Richard Reville said the situation has put the township in a "precarious spot."

"We weren't happy because we feel there should have had an alternative route" from Route 8 to Twinsburg Road said Reville. "But ODOT is willing to listen and work with us with open minds."

Jones said construction vehicles will be present almosy all the time and it is possible that they could be used to open up Twinsburg Road in the event of an extreme emergency, such as heavy flooding or a train derailment.

In addition, he said ODOT has proposed constructing a temporary emergency access road across a private, unidentified property, but added that the property owner had not been contacted.

Jones said ODOT has also retimed traffic lights at Route 8 and Hines Hill Road, resulting in a definite improvement during morning rush hour, with vehicles moving through the intersection at about four times the rate. He said it has brought a smaller improvement to evening traffic.

E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com

Phone: 440-232-4055 ext. 4105