ASHLAND — A section of Main Street in Ashland will be closed Tuesday as crews install a giant concrete culvert to fix a sinkhole that occurred there four years ago.
City officials said the closure — between Dairy Queen and Bicentennial Park — will only last a day. Detour signs will be posted along Miller, Fourth and Union streets.
The $1.2 million project began in late February, after the city received bids in 2024. Shane Kremser, the city’s engineer, said the delay was because of items found when crews began digging.
Crews found three unexpected, decades-old underground storage tanks and buried telephone and internet lines.
“Two of (the underground storage tanks) had rusted out bottoms, so the soil was contaminated and we had to haul away soil,” Kremser said.
Discovering the buried tanks and lines means officials pushed the original June 30 deadline to the middle of July, Kremser said.
On Tuesday, crews hope to install a giant pre-cast culvert manufactured out of concrete. The three-sided structure is 24 feet wide and 12 feet high, according to plan documents in the engineer’s office.
“The earliest they could deliver it was (June 10),” Kremser said. “It’s pretty substantial, and transporting that there, there’s just no way to (keep the road open).”
The engineer said closing that section of road will be a challenge for everyone.
“But it’s only for a day,” he said.
The drive-thru for Dairy Queen will remain accessible from Cleveland Avenue, he said.
What led to this?
Officials blamed a rain storm in May 2021 for sinkholes on properties directly across the street from Dairy Queen.
The situation led to the city’s acquisition of the four private properties built on top of or beside the culvert for a total of $190,000.
Another adjacent property was donated to the city. All those buildings were demolished and replaced with a gravel lot.
Ashland received a $500,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission in July 2022. A year later, city council authorized officials to take out a $600,000 loan to help pay for the project.
They plan to use wastewater funds to repay it.