City Looks for Money to Widen Rest of Pearl Road

The city is seeking federal money to widen the southern end of Pearl Road.

City Council Tuesday agreed to ask the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency for $3.97 million to widen Pearl Road to five lanes between Drake and Boston roads.

The project, which is already in the design phase, was dealt a major setback last month when the Ohio Department of Transportation, citing a funding crisis, rescheduled it for 2019. 

The city is now looking for other ways to get the project funded and moving.

"We're opening up other doors," Mayor Tom Perciak said.

Last April, Strongsville officials learned the state had awarded the next phase of the Pearl Road widening project $6 million.

A week later, the city hired Euthenics Inc., a Cleveland civil engineering firm, to design the plans for about $900,000.

The state grant -- now delayed till 2019 -- was to pay almost half the cost of the $12.7 million project. The city plans to contribute $3 and was casting around for the additional $3.7 in other grants.

"We're looking at every source of money," City Engineer Ken Mikula said.

Perciak said the widening is crucial to business development on Pearl Road and in a new section of Foltz Industrial Park.

NOACA is a regional planning agency and a clearinghouse for federal transportation funds.