Staff report

Two Mahoning Valley road projects — one in Vienna and the other in Ellsworth — are each getting $3.2 million in state funding for safety improvement work.

One project includes restricted crossing U-turn, called RCUT, and interchange improvements to state Route 82 in Vienna at state Route 193 and Niles Vienna Road.

An RCUT improves safety by eliminating left turns and crossing traffic from side roads, instead routing motorists to make a right turn followed by a U-turn at a nearby median opening, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. The project would begin in 2027 and finish in 2028.

The other project is to install a single-lane roundabout at the intersection of state Route 45 and Palmyra Road in Ellsworth. The project would start in 2028 and finish a year later.

The two projects were among 39 announced Monday by Gov. Mike DeWine and ODOT Director Pamela Boratyn. The projects are funded with $97.2 million from ODOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program.

The safety program addresses road locations with a history of fatal or injury crashes where other safety improvements have not been effective, according to ODOT.

DeWine said: “We want Ohioans to get from place to place safely. We put a lot of effort into road design and physical road safety in order to make our roads as safe as possible.”

The state Route 82 and Niles Vienna Road intersection had 40 crashes between 2011 and 2023 with three fatalities, according to ODOT.

Half of those crashes were angle crashes, also called T-bone collisions or side-swipe accidents, where one vehicle hits the side of another at an angle near or at 90 degrees.

The intersection in Ellsworth has seen a number of crashes, including one in May that injured three people.