The Delaware County Engineer’s Office Monday recommended the approval of several road improvement and ditch maintenance projects to Delaware County Commissioners.

Rob Riley, Delaware County chief deputy engineer, requested the approval of a contract modification between the commissioners and OHM Advisors for the Worthington Africa intersection. He said the groundbreaking is planned for the $6.5 million project in 2019 and goes into 2020.

“What we’re proposing to do is upgrade and widen the intersection and widen Worthington Road all the way up to Highland Lakes Avenue entrance,” Riley said during the meeting.

Riley said currently the engineer’s office only has the preliminary plans.

“This modification with OHM will basically take us all the way through final plans,” he said. “It will do all the final engineering and environmental engineering to get us through the final design.”

Riley also sought the approval of a cooperative agreement between the county and the City of Powell for improvements to the intersection of Liberty and Seldom Seen Roads.

“We’ve worked with the City of Powell on this agreement to advance this project which will include turn lanes and a new traffic signal at the intersection,” he said. “This is about a $1.3 million project and we are proposing to split the cost fifty-fifty with the City of Powell.”

Riley said the corporation line runs through the middle of the intersections making the split in funding appropriate. He said the county engineer’s office will administer most of the project and then bill Powell for its part of the cost.

Riley recommended approval of another cooperative agreement between Powell and the county to resurface Sawmill Parkway.

“This involves resurfacing Sawmill Parkway from the Franklin County line up to Seldom Seen Road,” Riley told commissioners. “About roughly one third of that length is actually in the corporation limits of Powell.”

Riley said the county engineer’s office would administer the work as part the department’s annual road improvement program and then invoice Powell for its portion of the estimated $499,000 cost of the work.

Riley said the road would be micro-surfaced instead of milling out the asphalt and repaving.

“It’s a preventive maintenance treatment designed to get another six or seven years out of the asphalt,” he said. “We’ll just put a seal coat over top and replace the pavement markings.”

Moving to the next project, Riley recommended the approval of three plats within two subdivisions, one in Delaware and the other in Liberty Township.

“The plats for these two subdivisions have been approved by all the necessary county agencies,” Riley said. “Wedgewood Park North includes 14 single family lots and Sunset Cove has three lots.”

Riley also presented ditch maintenance petitions and assessments for Wedgewood Park North, Braumiller Woods and Liberty Trace to commissioners. He said the action would add parts of the system to the county’s drainage maintenance program.

Riley said the the procedure was the “standard expedited petition” for 14 lots of Wedgewood Park North and 17 for Liberty Trace both located in Liberty Township. Braumiller Woods has 38 lots in the City of Delaware.