Illustration by MetroCreative

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County will seek restitution through the courts for costly utility delays on the Western Reserve Road widening project.

Mahoning County commissioners Thursday approved a last-minute addition to the agenda — a motion by Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti to begin litigation to recover an unspecified amount the county lost throughout the roughly three-year-long $20 million project.

“On every construction project, we’re going to encounter unforeseen occurrences and often those are utilities either in the wrong location or not in the exact location the plans indicated and often that results in a delay, because the contractor can’t proceed because a utility is in the way.

Those delays result in costs,” Ginnetti said. “Our last-ditch effort to recover the costs is litigation, if we can’t get responses from the utilities, because it does add cost and time to our project.”

The project is nearing completion, but its May completion date has been pushed back to September.

Ginnetti said costs the county will seek to recover have occurred over the life of the project, and his office makes repeated attempts as soon as a delay occurs to reach the utility owner and come to a resolution.

“We make every effort to try to resolve it before getting to this point,” he said.

Ginnetti said he could not speak about the exact nature of the delays during construction or what utility companies are involved.

The project began in 2023 after two years of delays because of other county work mandated by the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. It involves widening the road between Hitchcock Road and South Avenue and adding a central dual-left turning lane and new traffic and railroad signals. The contractor is Marucci and Gaffney Excavating of Youngstown.

In late 2024, when Ginnetti discussed the project with The Vindicator, he noted it could not begin for more than two years past its planned start date because of issues created by an OEPA mandate regarding the outdated wastewater treatment plant on Unity Road in New Middletown. The agency told the county that it had to be converted from a treatment plant to a pump station because its location, at the headwaters of Honey Creek, meant that any additional effluent from the plant into the creek was likely to cause damage to the ecosystem.

That $40 million project, handled by Rudzik Excavating of Struthers, required the county to run a zig-zagging line from Unity Road, up Middletown Road, down Baird Road, up Calla Road, down Springfield Road, then up Western Reserve to the Five Points pump station, and from there to the Boardman plant.

Ginnetti said that project, in turn, was delayed largely at Southern Boulevard because the contractor needed to work underneath the railroad tracks, and the railroad changed ownership “maybe five times in the span of five years.”

“So, every time we got close to having the agreement to go underneath the tracks, they changed ownership, and we had to start over. So, that delayed the sewer project for about five years,” he said.

Ultimately, he said the sewer project delays worked in the county’s favor for the Western Reserve widening project, costing less money and taking less time.

“As we went east of Market Street, there would’ve been some temporary pavement and lane adjustments put in that would’ve then been dug out with the second phase,” he said.

Ginnetti said it also eliminated problems with water flow during construction, and the combined project meant fewer interruptions to traffic along the corridor.

However, some businesses in the area disagree with the engineer’s assessment of the project’s timeliness.

The owner of Sparkle Market on Western Reserve announced last week the store will close permanently and blamed the construction project.

Sparkle and a group of businesses between Hitchcock Road and Glenwood Avenue endured a construction blockade in November 2022.

“They’re pretty much hitting us and all of these businesses for the holiday season, and obviously grocery stores are the biggest thing right now during the holidays,” a Sparkle spokesperson said at the time.

Ginnetti said he is not inclined to engage in arguments, but that local businesses are considered and accommodated as best as the county can manage during such projects.

The businesses are thought of in the design process and even during construction,” he said. “Even though we had road closures, all that meant was that through traffic couldn’t get through, but there was still access to the businesses. Like any construction project, there’s going to be inconvenience. For example, we put in a large series of box culverts in several locations, and there’s no magic way to build those.”