BERLIN CENTER — Berlin Station Road will be partially closed for about five months next year.

The Mahoning County Commissioners last week approved a $1.23-million contract with the Youngstown-based A.P. O’Horo Company, to replace the 83-year-old bridge on Berlin Station Road that spans a narrow length over Berlin Lake.

Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti said the 90-foot, two-lane concrete bridge was built in 1943.

The project, which Ginnetti said is federally funded, is supported by the County Engineers Association of Ohio. While it mainly supports such projects by administering funds from the Ohio Department of Transportation, some of those funds are from the Federal Highway Administration’s Local Major Bridge Program.

With the contract just approved by the county, Ginnetti said it will take at least a few weeks to set up a preconstruction meeting with A.P. O’Horo to finalize plans for the project.

“They try to be as efficient as possible, but of course it’s going to be a burden because it’s a construction project,” he said. “If they can do it with minimal impact, that is the goal.”

Ginnetti said the contractor will not even be able to obtain the steel beams from the manufacturing mill until at least November, and he expects the project to begin some time in February 2027. The nature of the project means the bridge will be entirely closed for the duration of the roughly 150-day project, and detours around it will be necessary.

The project should be completed in early- to mid-summer of 2027, Ginnetti said.

WESTERN RESERVE FUNDS

While the bridge project’s beginning is months away, the Western Reserve Road widening project will soon come to a close. After three years, Ginnetti’s office has said the work will be completed in late summer or early fall.

Last week, commissioners approved two agreements to ensure the county is properly reimbursed for work paid upfront out of its own pocket.

By adding a drop-right turning lane and a central turning lane at the Southern Boulevard intersection, the county was required to move and replace the railroad signaling equipment there.

Ginnetti said the crossing had to be widened by about 1.5 to 2 lanes, with most of the work done on the north side of the tracks.

Mahoning County paid $1,170,136 to Midwest and Bluegrass (MB) Rail IB, LLC of Overland Park, Kansas, for moving the railroad signal arm several feet north and replacing the existing arm with a longer one to account for the wider span across the tracks. They also replaced the signal and lights. That work also included widening the lanes approaching the railroad crossing.

In turn, Mahoning County will be reimbursed $600,000 from the Ohio Rail Development Commission to cover the railroad equipment costs, but not the road work.

Also on the commissioners agenda last week, Ginnetti sought and received approval to open bids for the Glenwood Avenue road diet project that will restripe the road from Western Reserve Road to Midlothian Boulevard, in much the same way Midlothian was restriped in 2023. There will be one travel lane in each direction with a center turning lane. Plans for outside bike lanes were scratched late last year.

The project also will add a roundabout at Wildwood Drive. Utility companies this month began work to relocate their lines ahead of the project.