OTTAWA — After work began in October to lower the eastern embankment of the Road I-9 bridge west of Ottawa, crews will be putting the finishing touches on the project next week.
News of the pending completion came during a meeting of the Blanchard River Flood Mitigation Coalition on Wednesday at the Putnam County Educational Service Center.
“This week, we’re looking at putting in the guard rail and paved surface, so the contractors tell me,” project engineer Greg Bockrath said. “We’ll be finishing up with striping next week.”
Along with lowering the embankment to help mitigate flooding in that part of the Blanchard River, contractors also installed a new system to alert motorists and residents of water issues on the bridge.
“Our signals and gates went up last week,” Bockrath said. “Those are an advanced warning system for when the water goes over the roadway. If you go out there now, obviously they are not turned on and the signs are flipped down, but when the water goes over the road, trustees will go out and flip the signs up and turn the lights on. The gates will go down to close the road down.”
Another project discussed was a diversion channel on the Little Blanchard River, another measure aimed to help reduce flooding. The Maumee Valley Conservation District voted to approve the project in June, and district manager Lynn Army is hopeful that work on the channel will be able to begin soon, with plans now 90 percent completed and expected to be fully completed this week.
“We’re looking to get everything geared up for 2017 construction, weather permitting,” he said. “One season should take care of it, since we’re talking about a diversion channel that’s less than a mile long.”
Currently, the conservation district is waiting to hear back from landowners who would be affected by the channel’s construction.
“There are three properties that we contacted, with only two directly affected by the channel,” he said. “We sent a letter to them with an offer [for the minimum amount of land needed for the project], and now we’re just waiting on them.”
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
