By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — The speed limit on Wade Avenue has been reduced to 25 mph because of construction, a township official said Friday.
The Ashtabula Area City School Board is building five elementary schools in a campus-style configuration on Wade Avenue, with plans to open the first school in fall 2011. In the meantime, large trucks and various other construction equipment are traveling up and down the two-lane road, said Bob Brobst, Saybrook Township trustee.
“We want to warn residents to avoid that road as much as possible,” Brobst said. “With the building of five schools, it’s getting a tremendous amount of truck traffic.”
Residents should expect mud, dirt and even gravel in some areas of Wade Avenue during the next two years or so, he said.
“It’s the township’s responsibility to make it passable,” Brobst said. “We’re being pro-active, but we don’t want to do anything permanent (like paving) until the schools are built and done.”
Brobst said they are acting upon the advice of Ashtabula County Engineer Tim Martin.
The Saybrook trustees also ask all truck traffic to take the shortest route possible to the new school site on Wade Avenue: Cemetery and Carpenter roads, avoiding Gerald Road.
