Abbey Road closed until Fall for bridge construction

Motorists may have to alter their plan to travel on Abbey Road near the Sprague Road intersection. A portion of Abbey Road is closed to the through traffic of motorists effective May 1, due to bridge construction. The construction is being done through Cuyahoga County.
The bridge, which spans the Baldwin Creek and located just south of Sprague Road will be removed in order to replace a box beam that is located under it.
The project, funded through the County Motor Vehicle License Tax Fund, will cost about $440,000. The money that makes up that fund comes from a permissive tax, collected as a part of license registration and the gas excise tax, according to North Royalton Finance Director Eric Dean. A permissive tax is an optional tax that can be levied by counties, cities and/or townships on vehicle registrations, as defined in Ohio Revised Code. Dean said that the city uses their portion for road repair. “It goes into the SCRM (Streets, Construction, Repair and Maintenance) fund,” he noted. That then is utilized by the yearly streets program. Cuyahoga County is responsible primarily for the construction of county roads, which are the major roads in the city, such as York, Sprague, Ridge, State and Royalton Roads. The city generally is responsible for the engineering portion of a project and the county for the construction.
Mark Tworzydlo, Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works Chief Construction Engineer, said that “all the beams will be removed and new beams installed and a new deck. There will also be some repairs to the abutments, which are what the beams are said on.”
Global Outdoor Solutions has been chosen to do the project by the County. All bridges that span more than ten feet fall under the responsibility of the County, so the city of North Royalton will not have to bear any cost. Last year, a county inspection revealed that the super of the bridge was showing signs of breakdown earlier than expected.
Since a portion of Abbey Road is now closed, the detour runs down Sprague Road to West 130th Street to Albion Road. The project is expected to be completed by the end of August.

By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer