NEWARK − Flooding concerns, road construction and closures, temporary roads and youth baseball traffic add up to south Newark residents frustrated about a South Second Street sewer project.
The $25 million interceptor sewer project, which should be done by fall 2025, will separate combined storm and sanitary flows to comply with Environmental Protection Agency mandates. A new 60-inch storm sewer and a new 42-inch sanitary sewer will replace century-old brick sewers. Also, a 12-inch water main will replace 6-inch and 8-inch water mains.
The sewer separation will eliminate 2 million gallons per year of combined sewer overflow from going into the South Fork Licking River.
The work on South Second Street extends from Walnut Street to the river. The project also includes sewer installation on National Drive between South Second and South Fourth streets.
But changes to Ohio Street are getting the most initial attention from residents and from Mound City Little League, which had 34 teams complete in a tournament May 3-5.
“It’s been a disaster," said Scott Baker, a volunteer with Mound City Little League. “Our biggest concern is 750 kids in the program and not a safe parking lot at this time. This stuff was supposed to be done before we opened up (for the season). We’ve had to eliminate one of our practice fields to have more parking.”
Ohio Street, which leads to the Little Texas neighborhood and to Don Edwards Park baseball fields, will be realigned to connect with South Second Street north of the current location.
The current intersection of South Second and Ohio streets is too close to the bridge for today’s safety code. So, it will be moved north to increase motorists’ line of sight. A few hundred feet of existing Ohio Street closest to South Second will be removed and replaced with grass.
A left turn lane will be added on South Second Street for traffic heading onto the new Ohio Street. Then, drivers will come to a fork in the road, leading to Mound City Little League on the left and merging onto the existing Ohio Street on the right.
Traffic coming from Little Texas will only stop at Ohio Street. Mound City traffic will have three ways out: Merging onto Ohio Street and then to Second Street; taking an access road directly to Ohio Street; or taking an alley north to Fleek Avenue.
But, during the preparation for construction, delays and temporary fixes have upset residents and baseball fans.
Brandon Fox, the city's water administrator, said the city is doing everything it can to minimize inconveniences, but everybody will have to make sacrifices during the project.
“We’ve met with some folks down there (at Mound City)," Fox said. "We knew there were going to be problems down there. It’s very high traffic and one way in and out. We’re trying to hear the concerns and make adjustments as we can. You can’t plan for everything.”
A telephone pole at the entrance of Second Street and an alley had to be moved so Mound City fans could exit to the alley and reach Fleek Avenue, avoiding congestion with Little Texas traffic. But that was a minor delay that has been resolved, allowing Mound City traffic and Little Texas traffic separate routes to Second Street.
Another delay is a change to the design of the project based on Army Corps of Engineers' recommendation, Fox said.
“We had some delays working with Army Corps of Engineers, getting their approval on a flood protection wall," Fox said. "We found a 4-inch gas line right where we were building our new structure. That was a miss during the engineering and design process.”
Fox said it could be two or three months before the Army Corps of Engineers grants final approvals, but might be sooner. Frustrated drivers have taken matters into their own hands.
“The old Ohio Street is closed," Fox said at the May 6 Newark City Council meeting. "The barricades, please don’t move those. We had those moved.”
Baker said, "They closed the road and then they realized they couldn’t do the construction on Ohio Street because of gas lines. We asked them to reopen the road. They said they couldn’t do it because it would confuse people.”
Fox said he does not want to close and open roads multiple times.
"There’s going to be growing pains as we go through it," Fox said.
Flooding is another concern of Little Texas residents who were recently asked to evacuate their homes during heavy rains in early April.
Dreama Hughes, a Little Texas resident, said nobody is listening to their complaints.
“I’m concerned the street will flood," Hughes told city council. "That part of Ohio Street is so low. We are not going to have a way in or out if you leave that road as low as it is. It needs to be built up or something. We are going to get flooded down there and we are going to get stuck. My parents moved there in 1982 and we never had this type of flooding.”
Fox said the April 2 flooding was an extreme event, but he would check to see if the temporary road needs to be raised.
Zenaide Burden, a Little Texas resident, said the flooding has become more frequent and more severe.
“I’ve never seen water like we’ve seen the last six years," Burden said. "Something happened. Somebody did something to create this because we’ve never had this issue before and we are getting flooded regularly."
At some point during construction, traffic will not be able to go north on Second Street toward downtown, so traffic coming from Little Texas will have to turn left and go south over the bridge.
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Twitter: @kmallett1958
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