Motorists will have to wait a little longer until the delays on the Scioto Trail portion of U.S. 23 are over.

The Ohio Department of Transportation started repaving the road last summer and planned to finish it in the middle of the month.

Workers are striping the roadway, building curbs, raising manhole covers and planting grass on the side of the road. They have placed straw on the ground where the grass will go.

“We just have a few little things left,” ODOT Public Information Officer Kathleen Fuller said on Monday. “But those little things are important and they have to be done.”

However, the work is about two weeks behind schedule and is supposed to be completed by the end of the week.

“But there are no guarantees because anything can happen,” Fuller said. “So it could be until the end of the month, which spills into next week for a couple of days.”

She said the rainy spring is the reason for the delays of the $2.7 million project.

“With the rain and the forecasts of rain last week, we didn't want to bring the striping crews in then not be able to use them,” Fuller said. “So we didn't get any striping done.”

Crews have now striped most of the highway and planned to complete that part of the job Monday. Traffic was backed up in some areas as they worked on some of the intersections.

ODOT awarded the contract to Boone Coleman Construction Company of West Portsmouth.

The Scioto Trail work is not the only part of U.S. 23 ODOT is working on. It also is doing construction work near the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon. That work is scheduled for an Oct. 31 completion date.

ODOT also is finishing up the U.S. Grant Bridge in Portsmouth. It was supposed to be completed in June 2004, but it is now scheduled to reopen also on Oct. 31.

However, ODOT said it should be open in August.

JEFF BARRON can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 236.