S.R. 8 Barrier Damaged by Semi to Cost $24,600

The city will repair a cracked median barrier on S.R. 8 in Stow near the Seasons Road exit, after it was damaged by a tractor trailer that jackknifed and hit the proetcive wall Jan. 30.

“It’s a potential hazard. We can’t wait for an insurance carrier to settle on stuff like that,” Service Director Dano Koehler said.

The driver of the truck, who stated in the police report he was driving north and became distracted while adjusting the radio, was charged with failure to control his vehicle, which also hit a minivan. The minivan driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to in Stow, according to police.

Stow is covering the up-front cost for the estimated $24,625 barrier repair, as well as an already-completed $2,875 repair to a guard rail also damaged in the incident. The city has submitted those bills to the insurance carrier for SBC Transportation Inc., the Youngstown-based trucking company whose driver damaged both the barrier and guard rail.

“There’s a horizontal crack down the [barrier] wall. There’s rebar in there that keeps it from just flipping over, but the strength has been compromised due to the truck hitting it, so it’s not something you can just leave that way," said Koehler. "If by chance on that stretch of highway through Stow another vehicle of a similar size would hit it, it could theoretically push that block through."

The city, which is responsible for maintenance of the state-owned route, was not aware of the 40-foot area of damage to the barrier immediately following the incident, although some repair work was done on the guard rail in March, Koehler said.

“It also was the type of project that wasn’t really logical during the winter because of the nature of the repair,” he said.

With approval from City Council May 12, Stow will now contract Kenmore Construction Co., the business that gave the lowest of three estimates, to do the repair.

The project is expected to take about a week to remove and replace the affected area of the barrier, Koehler said.