BOARDMAN -- A project intended to streamline traffic flow along Glenwood Avenue will go forward without one feature from the original plans.
The $9 million Mahoning County project includes a roundabout at Wildwood Drive, and will reduce traffic lanes from four through lanes -- two in each direction -- to two through lanes with a center left-turn lane.
On Tuesday, county Engineer Patrick Ginnetti said that plans to include bike lanes on each side of the road have been scrapped.
"I had concerns with the proposed bike lanes being adjacent to the travel lanes," Ginnetti said. "Some of my concerns are due to the increased number of accidents caused by distracted drivers that seem to be occurring more and more often in today's world."
Ginnetti said the overwhelming response from residents who participated in the public comment phase echoed his concerns and, after discussing it with the Ohio Department of Transportation, ODOT felt the risk was sufficient to let him remove the bike lanes from the project plans.
The project will be funded by a federal grant through ODOT for $6.8 million, a $1 million Ohio Public Works Commission grant, and $1.16 million from local funding. The county also will apply for an ODOT Transportation Improvement District grant for $500,000 to offset some of the local cost.
Ginnetti's office sent letters to homeowners along the corridor in September notifying them that right-of-way acquisitions would begin this fall.
The project will restripe the road from Midlothian Boulevard to Western Reserve Road. It is slated to begin in spring 2026 and run through fall 2027, but Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree said in September that he hopes the township can work with the engineer's office to coordinate the restriping project along with the township's $47 million FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance project.
That work will involve running drainage pipes along Glenwood to pull stormwater away from the immediate area and into retention ponds behind Boardman Plaza. Ginnetti said on Tuesday that collaboration makes sense because he would prefer the road not be dug up or closed off twice, but the decision is not his alone.
"The county is not opposed to coordinating efforts with the ABC Water District or Boardman Township on the two projects," he said. "However, the funding source(s) will have ultimate say on whether delaying some or all of the Glenwood Avenue Project to coordinate with the stormwater project will meet their requirements."
The Glenwood project is the result of several studies, including an Eastgate Regional Council of Governments 2017 Road Diet Information Guide and 2019 Connecting Boardman Active Transportation Plan that identified Glenwood as a good candidate for lane reduction, and a 2022 Mahoning County Glenwood Avenue safety study.
The Connecting Boardman plan was the first to suggest the bike lanes be included.
The safety study found 52 property-damage crashes per year along the corridor in 2017 and 2018, and 50 in 2019.
It states about 37% of the rear-end crashes happened at the Glenwood and 224 intersection and many of these resulted from inattentive drivers.
The roundabout at Wildwood was deemed necessary because of the high number of crashes from red-light running and poor signal visibility.
Data from the Federal Highway Administration shows that roundabouts replacing red lights will reduce crashes overall by 48% and serious injury crashes by 80%.