ODOT dedicates new District 1 facilities

Submitted information

LIMA — A new Paulding County maintenance garage in the village of Paulding and a new operations outpost in Hicksville were dedicated during separate ceremonies held at each facility. Both facilities were placed into full operation this spring.

“The Ohio Department of Transportation’s ability to perform well, especially during snow and ice season, is directly related to the quality of its facilities,” said ODOT Director Jerry Wray. He noted the department has a goal of returning priority highways back to normal driving speed within two hours after the conclusion of a winter weather event. “We hit that goal 97 percent of the time last winter. It’s much harder to do that with old and outdated facilities,” he said.

“We are celebrating today something unique for us – the opening of two new ODOT facilities in our region,” said Kirk Slusher, deputy director for ODOT District 1. “Director Wray’s commitment to investing in our facilities has resulted locally in a new maintenance garage in Allen County, new regional outpost in Hardin County near Forest, upgrades to our ODOT District 1 complex in Lima and plans for a new garage in Putnam County within the next few years,” said Slusher.

The former Paulding County facility, which was demolished to make way for the new, was constructed in 1978 while some of the former storage buildings were constructed in 1948 and 1966. The former Hicksville outpost was constructed in 1949.

Features of the new Paulding garage include:

• More truck storage for the modern ODOT fleet
• Upgraded, above-ground fuel system as well as a decanting station required by the Environmental Protection Agency for dumping catch basin waste
• Expanded mechanic’s area that provides the space needed to work on large equipment
• Wash bay which can accommodate two trucks at once, eliminating the need to wash trucks in the equipment storage area
• Salt dome, pole barn, equipment storage building and fuel island

Features of the new Hicksville outpost include:

• Five truck bays
• 2,000-ton salt storage facility
• A truck wash bay
• Decanting station
• Will serve as a regional salt supply location for both the ODOT Defiance and Paulding County maintenance crews during winter operations.

The new Paulding County garage is located at the same location as the former facility at 833 Wayne Street in Paulding. The Hicksville outpost is located at 946 East High Street, next to the Hicksville High School, and replaces the facility located on state Route 18 on Hicksville’s east side.

The final cost of construction for the Paulding County facility was $8.2 million. Final cost for the Hicksville facility was $3.1 million. Both were constructed under their original estimates of $8.5 million and $3.5 million, respectively.

Serving as the designer for both structures was Garmann Miller of Minster. General contractor for the Paulding garage was Mosser Construction, Fremont. Fetters Construction, Auburn, Ind., served as the contractor for the Hicksville facility.