The township originally hoped for a mid-summer completion when work began.
The latest course of pavement was scheduled to be put down starting Thursday, with striping and sign installation continuing through Saturday, weather permitting.
The mile-long section of two-lane road through a residential area is well traveled. Many drivers who use it to reach Social Row Road, which becomes Austin Pike and leads to an I-75 interchange, had to find alternate routes during the construction.
Lane widths that fluctuated between 12 and 16 feet have both been widened to 18 feet. Curbs, gutters and storm sewers were added. Two abrupt “S” turns were softened into “S” curves. Turn lanes were installed at Spring Valley and at entrances to the Estates of Paragon and Paragon Place subdivisions.Utility lines were relocated. Two culverts that cross under the road were extended and a small bridge north of Paragon Mills Drive was finished.
A sidewalk and landscaping were added on the east side of Paragon.
“It was basically just an old country road with ditches alongside of it before this,” said Wanamaker, who has fielded numerous complaints about delays.
“I wish I could say the discovery of an endangered species during the job halted work, but the delays were mostly weather related. We had a very set spring,” Wanamaker said.
“That affected excavation and utility relocation.”
Before work began, the township had to buy 2.429 acres of land in the right of way from private owners, each of whom was paid between $40,000 and $65,000.
A grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission provided close to $1 million of the construction cost. Washington Twp. provided the remainder.
A 2010 count showed that more than 3,100 vehicles traveled through the area each day, up from 1,500 in 2003 and 400 in 1993.
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