ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Belmont County is receiving funds from the Ohio Public Works Commission for a slip repair on Willow Grove Road.

The work should be done by winter.

Belmont County Engineer Terry Lively said the damage occurred in 2019 but did not become apparent until 2020.

“In late 2019 there was a pretty severe flood in the Willow Grove area. There was a lot of damage as a result of that. One of the things that was damaged was the embankment along Willow Grove Road at mile marker 8.82. That embankment failure threatened the stability of the roadway there and we immediately put up temporary traffic lights to take it down to one lane. We were concerned about the stability of the road,” he said.

“We applied for (OPWC) emergency funding. We were denied. We applied for ODOT FHWA funding and were denied, and we applied for Ohio EMA funding to help and were denied for various reasons. This is a OPWC emergency funding grant and it was made possible through Sen. (Frank) Hoagland’s office. Last year he asked for a list of all the unfunded slips in our area, and he put that together. Once he saw the magnitude of the problem he was able to free up some money at the state budget,” Lively said.

He said the project is 120 feet long and the cost is about $188,000 to repair. Lively said the local share is about $20,000.

“We were approved for up to $250,000 but we won’t be using all of that. We’ve very grateful to get what we’re getting,” he said.

“We’re getting 83.3 percent of that funded through this OPWC emergency funding, and we’ll be going on to bid on that very soon,” he said.

Lively said the project is located between St. Clairsville and Neffs.

“I want to commend Terry for the additional dollars coming into Belmont County,” Commissioner J.P. Dutton said, adding a lot of money has been secured in the last two years through OPWC, the Transportation Improvement District and the Ohio Department of Transportation. “You’ve been really, really aggressive in trying to bring those dollars in and I think it’s paying off.”

Lively said the project will be put out to bid on Sept. 1.

“We hope to get this wrapped up in November before the winter season hits,” he said. “I think we’ve got a good chance of getting that done. This’ll probably be the last slip project we complete in 2021.”

In answer to a question from Commissioner Jerry Echemann, Lively said he does not expect recent heavy rainfall to significantly delay the work.

“It’s not going to be a long-term pattern. I think we’re going to be OK in all our construction projects,” he said.

In answer to a question from Pultney Township Trustee Frank Shaffer, Lively said the county’s portion of the funding will come from license plate fees.

“We were planning on doing it with license plate fees whether we had funding for it or not. We had no choice. We had to get that fixed. We’ve got a couple other slips that are in the same situation. We’ve got FEMA projects, we’ve got Federal Highways projects that are going on. The 20 percent of the Federal Highways projects are being funded through the license plate fees. Different funding sources, different ways that they’re being paid for. We’ve got a lot of things going on. A lot of money in play right now and a lot of projects going on right now.”