Four engineering firms submitted proposals, and the public works departments from Fairfield and Springdale selected Choice One. Fairfield will pay for the design project upfront at $67,500, and Springdale will reimburse Fairfield for $22,500.
Fairfield City Engineer Ben Mann said the city had repaved most of Ohio 4 in recent years, everything from the northern border with Hamilton to the Seward Road intersection. Ohio 4 from Seward Road to I-275 “is showing its age,” he said.
Mann said the pavement south of Seward Road has been laid piecemeal over the years as sections have been improved and widened. That paving work had been done between 2004 and 2009, which puts section of Ohio 4 south of Seward between 12 and 17 years old. The average life of a heavily traveled road like Ohio 4, which sees 40,000 to 50,000 cars a day, is about 15 years, Mann said.
Ohio 4 is expected to be paved in 2023, which will give that section around 15 years of renewed life.
Once Choice One’s design plans are completed, the project will be bid for construction in late 2022 and construction will primarily take place the following year. The work includes milling the nearly 2-mile stretch of Ohio 4 (about a third is in Springdale), then repaving the road. It also includes applying pavement markings, concrete curb replacement, and adjusting as needed the sanitary manholes and water valves.
The construction project, which is expected to be around $2.76 million, will receive funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation, which will end up being around 60 percent of the total project price, Mann said. Springdale’s portion will be about 13 to 15 percent of the total cost of the project.
Fairfield received permission from ODOT to administer this project, which is required the administration of federal funds as Ohio 4 is part of the National Highway System.
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