Dover wrapping up busy summer of roadwork
DOVER (WJER) (August 23, 2022) – Roadwork in the city, including a project that closed the Wooster Avenue bridge Monday morning, provided some temporary inconveniences for drivers over the past couple of weeks. Still, Dover officials are proud of what they’ve accomplished in the downtown area.
City Service Director Dave Douglas says crews finished grinding and repaving on the bridge around lunchtime Monday. They’re also finishing up painting and detail work on the streets they paved in the downtown area.
ODOT is at a similar point in its work on Tuscarawas Avenue.
“I think with doing the downtown area that helped all of us and helped the city itself,” Douglas said. “It really, really looks good and drives very nice. Also, Tuscarawas Avenue looks great, too, so we’re pretty blessed and fortunate to have this much work done.”
The city is spending about $750,000 on paving this year, the most it has ever spent in a year.
What’s next?
Douglas says the city will pave a couple of more streets near the north end of town (East 27th and East 28th), in cooperation with Dover township, then decide if they have enough money left to pave any other streets.
If not, Douglas already has an eye on next summer. He says Walnut Street, and West 3rd and 4th streets from downtown to Commercial Parkway are on the schedule.
Meanwhile, the city will soon begin a storm sewer project along County Road 80 west of Wooster Avenue starting behind Drug Mart.
“We’re going to work very hard on maintaining traffic so we can keep the road open as long as we possibly can,” Douglas said. “That storm sewer – some of that is located in the center line of the road which won’t give us a lot of room in either line. We may have time to maybe close, but we’re going to do the best we can to keep it open.”
Elsewhere, Dominion crews have been relocated a gas main on East 20th Street near the middle school ahead of a bridge replacement project there. That work likely won’t take place until next year.
20th Street bridge property dispute
Dover is using eminent domain to obtain a piece of property about the size of five parking spaces from a residence on East 20th Street.
The property owner is fighting that in Common Pleas Court, saying the city doesn’t need that much land. Interim Mayor Shane Gunnoe says the property, and three others, are needed to repair the bridge in the 300 block of East 20th Street near the middle school.
“Three of the landowners voluntarily gave us access to those pieces of property,” Gunnoe said.
The city intends to pay the property owner $8,230 for the piece of land, which is about 0.02 acre.
“It’s a very small piece of ground,” Gunnoe said. “I’m just going to ballpark it at like 30 by 30 feet.”
Gunnoe says the bridge is deteriorating, but the repair project can wait another year as the issue works itself out in court.