Uhrichsville, Ohio - Construction crews will be out in full force this week in downtown Uhrichsville as a multi-road repaving project gets underway. 

Mayor Rick Dorland says a total of seven roads will see improvements, including five the downtown area and two near Claymont High School. 

Paving will occur in the following areas: East Third Street from the West Third Street bridge to East Fourth Street; North Water Street from the overhead bridge to the Trenton Avenue bridge; North Main Street from East First Street to East Fifth Street; North Uhrich Street from East First Street to East Fifth Street; North Dawson from East First Street to East Fourth Street; Thompson Street from East First to East Third Street; Indian Hill Road from the railroad tracks to North Water Street Extension; and all of River Road. 

Dorland says crews from Newton Asphalt began grinding on Monday and will start paving later in the week. He notes that no complete road closures are planned for the duration of the project, which he anticipates will take one to two weeks to complete.

Dorland notes that the city had originally identified 13 roads for paving but could only afford to pave seven of them this year. 

“Back at the first of the year, I submitted a list of streets that we wanted paved, and that was 13 streets. They, in turn, sent me back an estimate to pave those streets, and it was $700,000. We had to whittle it down because we had less than half of that as a budget,” he says.

The total cost of this year's repairs is over $284,000, the majority of which will be funded with the additional revenue generated from a 0.25 percent income tax increase approved by voters last year. Dorland notes that the city has not taken out any loans to pay for the project. 

He adds that the other six roads will be repaved next year. 

“This is a multi-year program because we have several streets in town that need paved, but I felt concentrating on our downtown would be first,” he says.