Heisley Road Bridge Project Could Be Complete by October

Progress on the Heisley Road bridge deck replacement is ahead of schedule.

During his city manager's report at the most recent city council meeting, Ken Filipiak said the Ohio Department of Transportation has informed him that construction crews are about two and half weeks ahead of schedule on the project.

"Although the project has an Oct. 15 completion date, we're hoping that that bridge will be opened up to north and south traffic a lot earlier than that," Filipiak said.

The city manager said ODOT won't reveal an exact completion date or say much more than that the project is ahead of schedule. 

"You can see that it's predominantly completed," Filipiak said. 

Mentor City Engineer David Swiger said remained work includes deck sealing and the installation of decorative fencing.

"We're hoping that we'll see them out of here by the end of this month, but as ODOT has warned, they have until Oct. 15, so they really don't want to commit to any date before that," Swiger said.

Filipiak said that ODOT initially wanted until right before Christmas to finish the project, but the city "demanded" an earlier finish date so that the project wouldn't conflict with holiday travel and shopping.

"If it goes until mid-October, that's still better than the original alternative," Filipiak said.

The deck hasn't been replaced since the bridge was built in 1961. Southbound traffic has been closed since early this year when the project began.

ODOT's estimated cost for the project was $1.7 million.