$12 million road project wraps up

ANGOLA, N.Y. (WIVB) - A Call 4 Action investigation kick started a major road repair project in the southtowns.

Truck drivers, school bus drivers, and volunteer firefighters were all complaining about the terrible driving conditions along Eden-Evans Center Road. But now, the "road to ruin" has been repaired.

"It's about time" might be the feeling of just about every driver who has used the roadway, which has been completed well ahead of schedule. The road deck on the bridge over Sisters Creek has been re-surfaced and the four-mile stretch from the State Thruway ramp to Route 5 in Angola has been rebuilt.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said, "So we just have a little bit more striping work to do, but by this weekend and Thanksgiving, when people are traveling to grandmother's house, they will be able to use Eden-Evans Center Road again."

The $12 million project actually started under the administration of County Executive Chris Collins, who oversaw the first two phases of reconstruction. Officials discovered why the road heaved in winter, and potholes re-appeared as quickly as they were patched when they dug up the road bed and found slag.

County Legislator John Mills said, "They used a base slag coming out of the steel plants, and that is a very porous base, and it slides around a lot. So this road was not only having potholes but it was moving, shifting."

While most of the work is done, there is still a section of Eden-Evans Center Road that can jar your bones if you are not careful. That is supposed to get finished next year.

The four-miles of Eden-Evans Center Road in the opposite direction, toward North Collins, was not in as bad a shape and is due for re-surfacing - what is called a "mill and overlay."

Erie County Public Works Commissioner John Loffredo said, "What that means is grinding out a portion of the road and recycling that portion, that material, and then just overlaying it with new material."

Drivers did have to take detours for almost two years while the road was being rebuilt.