From road construction to utility upgrades to new housing developments, multiple projects are moving forward across the City of Solon as officials continue work on infrastructure and development initiatives.
On Miles Road, Cleveland-based Terrace Construction has begun installing a new water main along the centerline of the street, running from just west of Naiman Parkway to just east of the Harper Road intersection.
“That project is to replace the existing water service and is a joint project between the City of Solon and the Village of Orange,” Solon City Engineer John Busch said. “This was predicated on a long history of water main breaks in that section of Miles Road that was causing a lot of service issues to not only a lot of our residents on the north end of Solon, but a lot of our commercial industrial businesses that are on Miles Road and on the side streets off of it.”
And the water main breaks were extensive, according to Busch, which meant that even after the mains were repaired, the damage was so severe that time had to be spent repairing the road, sidewalks, and drive aprons, causing further disruption.
Water service will remain on during construction, and residents will be notified in advance if their individual service needs to be briefly transferred.
Traffic between Naiman Parkway and Brainard Road will be one-way westbound only, while the road between Brainard Road and Harper Road will be one lane in each direction. Driveways will still be accessible to residents unless work is ongoing directly in front of the home, and trash, mail and school bus service will not be disrupted.
“That project is going to be completed by the end of the construction season, so November of this year,” Busch said.
Solon Mayor Eddy Kraus emphasized during a Feb. 19 community gathering where he shared project reports for infrastructure and business updates coming to the city that one of the biggest is at the U.S. 422 and Harper Road intersection which is set to be reconstructed by the Ohio Department of Transportation into a diverging diamond – a type of highway intersection that allows two directions of traffic to temporarily cross to the left side of the road, providing easier access to an interstate.
Busch said the city is continuing to work with the Ohio Department of Transportation on the project and, with additional funds received for the plan, has reapproved a new agreement with ODOT. The bidding process for the project is scheduled to start sometime in mid-August and will end in October.
“Hopefully, we can get a bid that’s affordable,” Busch said. “Because that sometimes happens where you get bids that aren’t affordable, but assuming we get an awardable bid, we would work through with ODOT on the contracts for the construction. I would anticipate we would probably start construction in early spring of 2027, assuming that all goes forward accordingly.”
The Harper interchange had safety and congestion issues, so the diverging diamond would improve traffic capacity by around 20% to 30%, Busch said.
“With that project, we’re adding a ten-foot multi-purpose path with the ultimate goal of connecting the old Norfolk Southern railroad track that the city bought south of this project area and connect it to the metro parks,” he added. “That would connect through the US-422 intersection area.”
In November 2020, 32 acres adjacent to the former Hawthorne Valley Country Club on Aurora Road in Solon were rezoned to make way for a residential community called Hawthorne Golf Estates with a plan to build 105 single-family homes for people 50 years of age and older.
According to Busch, plans for the construction of the homes is “generally substantially complete” with the next step in the process to create the lots, which establishes all of the easements, which allow local companies to run power lines, water pipes and sewer lines across your property, for the project along with the maintenance requirements.
“The developer is working through the City of Cleveland Division of Water for those easements as well as the Cleveland Metroparks because the subdivision entrance is off of the Hawthorne Parkway private driveway that’s owned and operated by the Metroparks,” he said. “The timeline depends on the process of review with those two. I would hope that it would be completed within a few months, but you never know what those processes might be.”
Busch said the developers are eager to start building houses in the complex, as is the city, and he hopes the approvals come as soon as possible.