Among them:
• Beginning sometime this year relocation of utility lines will get under way. A sign of that activity will be the appearance of “probably some pretty good sized poles on the north side of the bridge,” Christian, county engineer, said. The relocation will be temporary and is needed to make way for construction and equipment.
• In spring 2011, “bird scare tape” will be draped from the existing bridge in hopes of encouraging any endangered cliff swallows in the area to nest elsewhere, Christian said. What exactly will be required has not been disclosed, but steps will be needed because someone saw what was believed to be a cliff swallow nest on the bridge, he said.
• Someone also will be in the river itself searching for any freshwater mussels that may be residing there. If any are found, they will have to be relocated, Christian said.
The construction also is expected to affect the 2012 Strawberry Festival. Most festival activities take place on the river levee between the Adams Street and the North Market Street bridges.
Engineers were asked if there’s any way the construction can be done and the bridge open in time for the June 2012 festival. The 18-month projected construction schedule begins following the June 2011 festival and goes into fall 2012.
“I don’t even want to raise the specter that someone said you could be done in a year,” Huelskamp, the engineering department’s chief design engineer, said.
Christian said the project engineers and those with the Ohio Department of Transportation were comfortable with the 18-month schedule for a project of the bridge replacement’s magnitude.
Contact this reporter at nancykburr@aol.com or (937) 339-4371.
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