FINDLAY, Ohio — A major road in Findlay was supposed to reopen this week following a construction project, but now, that's not going to happen.
In July, the intersection of West Main Cross, East Street and Martin Luther King Junior Parkway, along with the MLK parkway bridge were closed for a re-engineering of the area.
The road leading to the bridge from both ends has been raised 3 feet.
It's to keep this major road in Findlay open during a 100-year flooding event.
Prior to this construction, during one of those historic floods, the only way to cross the Blanchard River has been I-75.
"Our community really got divided in half," explained said Findlay mayor Christina Muryn. "Our emergency services weren't able to get over to the east side, or we had stationed them around town but weren't necessarily able to get access to the hospitals. So, that's certainly a significant issue."
The work was supposed to be wrapped up this week, but like many projects around the region, it was delayed because of supply chain shortages.
Now, Muryn says the pieces are in place to finish the traffic signal and street light installation, which should be finished in a few weeks.
"Because at one point they had told us they were going to be delayed by about 2 months. And obviously, we would have gotten the intersection open, but we were going to have to do some creative things to do that. So we're still glad we'll be able to open it," said Muryn.
Because of that delay due to the supply chain issues, this Findlay intersection is expected to finally be reopened by the second week of November.
"We're in the home stretch. We'll be doing the final layer, weather permitting, and then getting the striping done. And then as soon as we can, we'll be opening it," Muryn said. "Our target is Nov. 12 at this point; that week."