Broadway construction in Toledo to end in July

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – It’s not easy to have one of your main neighborhood streets turned into a construction zone.

For almost one year, Old South End residents have been driving past traffic barrels on torn-up Broadway Street.

The project is taking more than double the amount of time originally planned because of a water line break last year.

“It’s very taxing, sometimes you don’t know when you come down the street whether that one is complete or you have to take a detour,” longtime Old South End resident Mary Pilcher said.

But she and other residents are hopeful that the improvements will be worth the wait.

“I’ve been here for 60 years, so there’s been a lot of changes, but this is one of the larger ones that they’ve made, so it’s good to see,” Pilcher said.

Pilcher is focusing on the positive, that city leaders said the road work on Broadway will be complete in July.

Hector Garcia, a property manager for the restaurant El Rincon, is more skeptical. The main entrance to the restaurant is right on Broadway and he said business has slowed and even stopped during construction.

“Every business in here they’re running late to pay the bills,” Garcia said.

He is reluctant to accept the July timeline.

“They always move the time that they’re going to fix it,” Garcia said. “Be done in May, then June, now in July.”

City leaders said deadlines changed because of weather conditions, but July is the current target. Construction project leaders said that crews will begin working on Saturdays as well to finish the work.

Crews are currently placing the curb and installing electrical routes. Starting May 19, they will install sidewalks and medians.

After that, they will pave the road and add signs, trees, and pedestrian signals.

Toledo Commissioner of Engineering and Construction Management Christy Soncrant said the city has learned a lot from this Broadway construction project.

City leaders have held multiple meetings with the community, updating them on the construction progress. She said it’s now regular practice to have construction meetings with the community ahead of and during major construction.

“We’re trying to do more monthly meetings, construction meetings, so that we can get out to the public ahead of time to let them know what’s going to be coming up, what they can expect, what the final project is going to look like and keep them informed during the whole thing,” Soncrant said.

She said it’s helpful to listen to the community members as well, so city leaders can see the project from another perspective.

“Maybe little things, that in the grand scheme of things, we’re not thinking about, because it’s not a part of laying a new road,” Soncrant said, pointing to a recent construction meeting where a resident asked about how construction will impact leaf pickups in the fall. “But it’s stuff that affects the residents.”

Old South End residents are organizing their own community meeting on Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m. at the Sofia Quintero Event Center. They plan on discussing construction and other neighborhood issues.

For more information about upcoming road construction meetings, click here.

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