MANSFIELD — Mansfield City Council on Tuesday is expected to consider the next step in a plan to one day connect the B&O Bike Trail into the downtown.
Council is scheduled to vote on the acceptance of an $800,000 federal grant through the Ohio Department of Transportation that would cover about 80 percent of the costs to build a multi-use trail along Millsboro Road between Trimble Road and Marion Avenue.
The city would cover the remaining $200,000 from its permissive sales tax to meet the 20 percent required match, according to city engineer Bob Bianchi.
The 10-foot wide trail will be just over a half-mile long, he said, connecting into the Mansfield Arts Center. Ultimately, the plan is to connect the 18.4-mile B&O Bike Trail all the way into the downtown.
“The goal is to have a refuge trail that bicyclists and pedestrians can safely use and not be in conflict with vehicular motorists,” he said. “They will not have to share the roadway.”
This latest planned section will have a grass buffer strip between the trail and Millsboro Road.
“We have worked with the Mansfield Art Center. They will allow the trail to meander onto their property and then come back on at the intersection of Millsboro and Marion,” Bianchi said.
He said the design work, being done by K.E. McCartney & Associates from Mansfield, is 85-percent complete. He said the effort has reached the property acquisition phase for some “strip takes” from owners along the corridor.
Bianchi said that process will take about nine months.
The engineer offered an updated timetable for the overall project, including elements already approved by City Council:
— construction of a 100-foot long, $850,000 tunnel beneath Trimble Road will be done during the 2024 construction season, part of a project connecting the B&O to the trail on the east side of the busy, four-lane roadway.
— construction of a $1.7 million, 10-foot wide, 1.13-mile long bike trail, connecting the existing B&O Trail to the tunnel will be done during spring/summer of 2025.
— construction of the trail along Millsboro Road between Trimble Road and Marion Avenue is planned for the summer of 2025. Bianchi said the city will work to schedule the project to reduce any impact on traffic related to Discovery School at 855 Millsboro Road.
— construction of a trail along Trimble Road between Marion Avenue and Millsboro Road is being planned for the construction season of 2027.
— construction of a trail along Marion Avenue from the intersection of Millsboro Road and Marion Avenue to Glessner Avenue is planned for 2028, according to the engineer.
Bianchi said that section of Marion Avenue is 32-feet wide, eight feet wider than a normal two-lane road.
“The road is wider than it needs to be,” he said. “We will be creative in how we use that space to facilitate the construction of the trail without encroaching too much on the property owners along that corridor.”
The next phase in the project, linking the trail into the downtown, will be trickier, according to Bianchi, due to the topography of some of the buildings being close to the road.
