Spring Lake to gain access to US 68

A $3.2 million project to connect Eagle Township Road 80 to U.S. 68/Ohio 15 will give residents of the Spring Lake Subdivision access to U.S. 68 once the Eagle Creek flood basin is constructed. The Ohio Department of Transportation has been awarded a federal transportation grant expected to pay for 80% of the construction cost. Findlay City Council has been asked to contribute $650,000 as local match dollars by the Maumee Watershed Conservancy District, Defiance. The conservancy district is overseeing construction of the basin. Council heard the first reading of legislation to appropriate the money at its regular meeting on Tuesday. Council is expected to vote on the legislation at its Feb. 6 regular meeting. Council's Appropriation Committee voted in favor of providing the match at a meeting held on Jan. 9, noting in its report that the project is not inside the city limits, but will offer safety service access to the subdivision once the basin is constructed. Construction on Township Road 80 could begin this year. Construction of a new Norfolk-Southern Railroad bridge in downtown Findlay could also begin this year, according to Steve Wilson, project manager for both the conservancy district and the Hancock County Board of Commissioners. His annual update on the flood mitigation projects was released Wednesday. A $7.1 million grant, awarded to the conservancy district in 2021 by the Federal Rail Administration, was expected to cover 80% of the cost, then estimated at $8.8 million. The cost has now increased to $12.5 million. Wilson has said the difference between the grant and actual costs will need to be provided by county flood mitigation funds, the city, a cost-share from Norfolk Southern, or a combination of them. The bridge, which is over 100 years old, straddles the Blanchard River just west of Cory Street and Findlay's downtown. Supports for the bridge are a "pinch point" in the river and act as a dam during floods. The 150-foot span of the bridge will be replaced by a new bridge, with a span of 300 feet, removing the obstruction from the river. In 2009, Hancock County voters approved a 10-year, 0.25% additional sales tax to support the flood mitigation fund. Plans to bench a second leg of the Blanchard River will nearly exhaust those funds, leaving what remains for the bridge's construction. The river benches will be built along the north side of the river, from the Main Street bridge to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway overpass at East Main Cross Street. The first set, a $6.1-million project, cut benches into the north riverbank for about 3,500 feet between the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge and Broad Avenue. The benches are meant to increase the river's capacity during a flood. According to Wilson, bids will also be sought this year to construct the additional river benching and the basin. The $60 million basin, to be located just south of Findlay along the Blanchard River, is expected to range in size from 600 to 800 acres, and will be dry most of the time. During a flood, however, the basin could hold enough stormwater to drop floodwater 1.5 feet on Findlay's Main Street during a 100-year storm, like the flood of August 2007. Once complete, the basin is expected to lift nearly 2,000 parcels out of the Blanchard River's floodplain. The $60 million estimate for the basin is at least three years old. Requests by The Courier for an updated estimate have gone unanswered.