Cedar Fairmount streetscape project to begin in April

View of expanded sidewalk area along Fairmount Boulevard. Image courtesy Cedar Fairmount SID.

After a year’s delay, the Cedar Fairmount Streetscape and Cedar Road Resurfacing project is set to begin in April. The city awarded a $3.99 million contract to Perk Company Inc. in January.

According to Joseph Kickel, assistant to the director of public works for Cleveland Heights, the project was designed as two separate projects with multiple funding sources for each, but was combined into one in order to reduce costs and construction time. Of the total project cost, the resurfacing portion will be $2.95 million and the streetscape $1.04 million.

The streetscape project, designed by Osborne Engineering and City Architecture, will add several amenities to the Cedar Fairmount Business District, including new trees, sidewalks and sidewalk features—such as widened sidewalks, brick pavers and custom benches—from Fairmount Boulevard to Euclid Heights Boulevard. This portion of the project also includes a multi-use pedestrian and bicycle path that will be constructed along Cedar Glen Parkway to connect the area to University Circle.

"We are excited to start the long-anticipated Cedar Fairmount Streetscape Project that will add new breath to this vital, historic district of Cleveland Heights," said Kaye Lowe, executive director of Cedar Fairmount Special Improvement District (CFSID).

Planning for the streetscape project began in 2009 with a Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative study. Then, in 2013, the city awarded a contract to Osborn Engineering and City Architecture for engineering, bidding support, and post-bidding design services for the project. The project is expected to be completed in October.

Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) had delayed the resurfacing project—repaving Cedar Road from the top of Cedar Hill to the city’s border with University Heights at Taylor Road—until 2017, and that work needs to be completed before work on the streetscape project can begin. The resurfacing project will include new ADA-compliant curb ramps from South Taylor Road to Euclid Heights Boulevard.

Dominion East Ohio, which has been working on a multi-year gas line replacement project in the city, began replacing gas lines under the sidewalks beginning at Euclid Heights Boulevard and Cedar Road to Surrey Road in March. The company has cut down several trees where it is working. Those trees will be replaced and the landscaping enhanced at the completion of the streetscape.

According to Kickel, the project is scheduled to receive $3.48 million in federal funds, $443,000 in Ohio Public Works Commission funds, and $69,000 in Ohio Department of Natural Resource funds. CFSID has already contributed $100,000 to the project and will be paying separately for add-on amenities, such as signage.

The city has placed a button on its home page that connects users directly to information and updates for the project: www.clevelandheights.com/index.aspx?page=1959. CFSID will keep residents and businesses apprised of progress, schedule changes and other issues relating to the project on its website, www.cedarfairmount.org, where it has added a button to its home page, and via social media.

CFSID hosted, in conjunction with FutureHeights, a Construction Survival Workshop for business and property owners and is planning several special events. The first is a Hard Hat Happy Hour on Friday, April 28, 5–8 p.m. Merchants will offer specials to all who purchase a Hard Hat Happy Hour hat and wear it during the event. There will be children’s activities, music, hard hat decorating, a raffle, cupcake decorating, and fun for all.

Deanna Bremer Fisher

Deanna Bremer Fisher is executive director of FutureHeights and publisher of the Heights Observer.

Read More on Cleveland Heights
Volume 10, Issue 4, Posted 4:52 PM, 03.20.2017