ROSSFORD, Ohio — It's been six days of headaches for drivers in Rossford after a semi driver with an oversized load smashed into part of the Lime City Road overpass on I-75 on Friday, causing the overpass and the entirety of the interstate's northbound lane around the crash to close.
The overpass is much-traveled since it leads to nearby schools. Rossford Elementary is south of the overpass. Rossford High School and the Penta Career Center are north of the overpass. Along with industrial traffic, that stretch of Lime City Road since Friday has seen heavy traffic due to detours from the crash.
Ohio Department of Transportation crews began working to fix the damages and were in the area Wednesday morning to clean up additional debris on I-75.
For most of the day Wednesday, crews were on the bridge deck installing concrete barriers, fencing and temporary traffic signals. This will allow one lane of traffic to pass over the bridge, alternating between north and southbound traffic, ODOT District 2 public information officer Kelsie Hoagland said.
The one-lane fix is a temporary band-aid for the next few months as ODOT works out the design and details of the emergency contract to rebuild the bridge.
"Typically this process would take years, truly, to develop," Hoagland said. "But we're looking at, hopefully, a matter of eight weeks to get the contract, the plans designed and get the contract out for bid."
When crashes cause major disruptions like this, drivers are generally able to adapt, Rossford's director of development, Todd Audet, said.
"Usually when you have a situation like this, any kind of construction, traffic finds new ways," Audet said. "It's self-leveling. But it's still an impact, it's a disruption."
He said this is the second time this specific bridge has been closed due to a bridge strike in the last few years and has been an ongoing problem over the decades.
The Lime City Road bridge has a 14-foot, 7-inch clearance, which is about a foot lower than most of the other recently rebuilt overpass bridges over I-75.
With more economic development happening right around this area, Audet said ODOT should take the opportunity to increase this bridge elevation.
"The bridge is narrow, it's in good condition except for the impact," Audet said. "So it's probably not on the radar screen for replacement, but we would like to put it on the radar."
Hoagland said increasing the bridge's elevation is a possibility.
"A lot of the bridges in this corridor, especially the ones that were recently reconstructed for our I-75 projects, are a higher elevation," Hoagland said. "So, that's something certainly can be implemented with this bridge in the future to make it a higher clearance and avoid the issue overall."
The one-lane solution will be in place for the foreseeable future until ODOT finishes the designs for the repaired bridge and have that contract out for bid. which will probably take about 8 weeks, Hoagland said.