Pearl Road Phase 2 'Under Construction By This Time Next Year'

The city will seek a $2.3 million grant from the state to help pay for Phase 2 of the Pearl Road project -- a job that will widen the roadway up Stoney Hill and to the Strongsville border at Boston Road.

City Council agreed this week to ask for State Issue 1 funding to help pay for the $11,455,000 project.

"If it all falls into place, we should have about $9.5 million in grants," Mayor Tom Perciak said.

Strongsville should learn by the end of the year whether it will get the Issue 1 award.

Perciak said the city would continue to seek funding for the remaining $2 million, but if none can be found, will borrow the money.

Meanwhile, right of way acquisition is continuing, City Engineer Ken Mikula said.

"We're looking to have Pearl Road Phase 2 under construction by this time next year," Perciak said.

The project, which will widen Pearl from where it narrows at Ellsworth all the way to the city limits at Boston Road, appeared to be in jeopardy early this year when the Ohio Department of Transportation  pushed back funding until 2019.

But ODOT reversed the decision this summer and agreed to give the city $6 million in 2013.

Perciak said the widening is crucial to business development on Pearl Road and will provide potential manufacturing firms better access in and out of town when the city develops a new section of Foltz Industrial Park.