Road Work Ahead: Next Phase of Pearl Project is Already Rolling

Just as the memories of this year's are fading, the orange barrels will go up again.

Mayor Tom Perciak said the city is moving ahead with plans to widen the last section of Pearl -- from Drake Road to Boston Road -- in about two years.

"We are proceeding because the time is right," Perciak told a crowd of about 300 at his annual State of the City address Tuesday. 

The mayor said Strongsville has already received a grant that will pay for most of the engineering work and is in line for a $6 million grant for the work itself.

That would leave the city about $5 million short for the $12 million project, but Perciak said officials "will hammer away" at various funding agencies this year to find the rest of the money.

Work is scheduled to start the summer of 2013, he said. The project would widen the last stretch of Pearl Road, from just south of Drake Road to the top of Stoney Hill. 

The ongoing project, which is widening Pearl from the to a point about 700 feet south of Drake Road, is expected to finish ahead of schedule, possibly by the end of June. Perciak said no Strongsville tax money was used in the $15.5 million job, which will widen Pearl to five lanes.

That construction has been going on since March 2010.