Building of Hallett Avenue overpass in Swanton to start in spring

SWANTON - Construction of an overpass on Hallett Avenue to replace a railroad crossing should begin in late spring now that Swanton Village Council has approved a maintenance agreement for the bridge's approaches, an Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman said Friday.

ODOT expects to award a construction contract for the $9.5 million Hallett bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railway on April 22, with work likely to start by early June, said Theresa Pollick, a department spokesman in Bowling Green.

The bridge is scheduled to open in late 2012, and construction will close three streets that intersect Hallett near the tracks for up to 18 months, the spokesman said.

Those closings and shorter-term closings of Hallett itself remain to be scheduled, Ms. Pollick said, but all are more likely to be during 2011 and 2012 than this year.

Work probably will begin with construction of embankments for the bridge's approaches.

Swanton's future role in maintaining the roadway on part of those embankments was the subject of the project agreement that village council approved earlier last week.

While the bridge itself will be east of the current Hallett Avenue railroad crossing, and thus entirely within Swanton Township and maintained by Lucas County, part of the approaches on either side will be along the existing street, which straddles the Lucas-Fulton county line and is thus partially in Swanton.

Before voting to approve the agreement, councilman William Belinger sought assurance that "there's not something in here that's going to cost us millions of dollars."

Village Administrator Jon Gochenour said the agreement merely included the village's pledge to maintain the roadway, signs, markings, and guardrails to federal standards. Most importantly, he said, the agreement committed the village to avoid obstructing the Hallett right-of-way in the future.

"This is a dramatic project that, hopefully, will go well," Mr. Gochenour said. "It will cause some disruption in the village, but it is long sought and finally to fruition."

The overpass, which will provide an unimpeded route for emergency vehicles and other traffic across a busy railroad line used by scores of daily trains, had been designed but was on hold for construction funding when ODOT determined late last year that it had surplus federal "stimulus" money available because other projects had come in under budget.

The federal funding will cover about $8.7 million of the project's cost. Swanton is to pay 5 percent, and Mr. Gochenour noted that even if construction ran $1 million over budget, that would amount to a $50,000 cost increase for the village.

The streets to be closed during part of construction are Brindley Road, Broadway Street, and Chestnut Street. Access to Brindley will be maintained from Scott Road, while Broadway and Chestnut will be accessible from other village streets.