Photo by Ryan Ottney | Daily Times

Paving on Lakeview Avenue in New Boston was completed on Monday. Village Administrator Steve Hamilton apologized for the delay and the confusion it has caused to local traffic, and warned that another paving project would begin on 139 next month.

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RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY

PDT Staff Writer

NEW BOSTON — Paving work on Lakeview Avenue in New Boston ran a little longer than expected, but was completed Monday afternoon. Village Administrator Steve Hamilton apologized for the delay and confusion it caused local traffic, and warned that another paving project will begin on Ohio 139 next month.

Scioto County Engineer Craig Opperman previously explained that the county and the village applied last year for state funding to repave Lakeview. He said the state awarded a 50-50 matching funds grant in the amount of $148,000 for the project, and New Boston is paying half. That state funding, he said, would have expires if the Lakeview project had not started by Oct. 1.

The project was started on Wednesday last week with crews from the Shelly Company of Thornville, Ohio, milling the old pavement. The entire project was expected to have been done last week, but Hamilton said the company was behind on another job which ended up pushing them behind on this one, too. The company paved much of the road on Saturday, and finished the job on Monday.

“I’d like to apologize for all the inconvenience of the traffic that’s been going on, but this was a grant that we got and we had to have it paved by the first of October. So any inconvenience that the village has caused the citizens of the village and outside, I apologize for that,” Hamilton said.

He said Lakeview was expected be re-opened to both lanes of traffic by the end of the day Monday.

Meanwhile, opposite Lakeview on Ohio 139, Hamilton said the slip repair project that has kept 139 closed since March is nearly complete. He said the work is finishing up, and next month 139 will be paved from U.S. 52 East all the way up to the New Boston corporation line at Blaine Avenue. During that work, all traffic will continue to be detoured to Lakeview.

“That will probably last the same as this one did — about three or four days,” Hamilton said.

Also on 139, the Ohio Department of Transportation is scheduling another slip repair project farther up the road — closer to Hinkley Hollow in Portsmouth — to begin early next year. ODOT spokesperson Kathleen Fuller said an exact start date has not yet been determined, but the project is not expected to be as complicated or last as long as the one currently finishing up in New Boston. The highway also will not be closed entirely, she said, but will be reduced to one lane of traffic.

Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.