Marks Road Closed; No Reopening in Sight

The city abruptly closed Marks Road between Lunn Road and the railroad tracks last week after a Cuyahoga County inspector said a culvert under the road was ready to collapse.

When will it reopen? Hard to say.

The culvert is not scheduled to be repaired until 2014, City Engineer Ken Mikula said.

"We're going to try to accelerate that," Mikula said.

Officials are also looking at a possible temporary repair that would allow the road to be opened before the culvert is replaced.

Mikula said the corrugated metal pipe has corroded on the bottom, and the weight of traffic is causing the road to buckle.

The city is responsible for maintaining culverts, but county engineers handle inspections.

Mikula said officials have been watching the culvert for awhile, and inspectors notified the city in a Nov. 30 letter that it's time to act.

"In their opinion, failure (of the culvert) is imminent," Mikula said.

A news release from the county said the pipe has "experienced severe deterioration. The Bridge Inspection Division of the Department of Public Works has identified some critical findings in the pipe and the adjacent fill that have warranted the closing. There are cracks, flattening and the beginning of some buckled areas within the structure that have also caused failures to the guardrail."