Council considers fate of Pleasant Avenue stone wall

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“I just hate to see us spend money on something like that and in five years we might be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to tear it all down and start over,’” Miller said, saying he enjoys seeing preservation when this is possible, “but you also have to be practical.”

The plan is to widen Pleasant Avenue to four or five lanes within five to ten years, said Public Works Director Ben Mann.

“I’m not convinced I’m doing too much with this (wall) right now because you don’t know what the future holds,” he said.

The stone wall has changed from a perimeter wall to a retaining wall in some areas, which Kleingers engineer Mike Brunner says is not good. The wall was probably at the same level when it was built, he said. But yards were likely raised during the construction of the Parliament Hill subdivision in the 1970s, and Pleasant Avenue was raised – up to 10 to 12 feet in some areas – as it was built. construction. And since it probably doesn’t have a foot, it leans or bulges east or west in various places on the wall.

Fairfield Director of Development Services Greg Kathman said he liked historic and older features to be preserved, but said: “The time to do it right was when the subdivision was built and designed ago. is (40 years old). “

Mann said this section of Pleasant Avenue sees more than 19,000 a day, according to the latest Ohio Department of Transportation count in 2019.

“At the end of the day, we’d want it to be three, four, or five lanes, and definitely (include) a sidewalk or multi-use trail,” Mann said. “This kind of project would be likely when we have to tackle the elimination of this wall at this point or make major efforts to try to save it.”

Widening Pleasant Avenue would be an estimated $ 12 million project – a price that would rise in five to 10 years, city officials said – and would require outside funding.

Council advised staff to allocate any funding for safety improvements in next year’s capital improvement program for review.


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