Partners in Wooster Street project celebrate completion

Wrapping up the work at BGSU’s “front door” before winter has earned Kokosing Construction a $200,000 bonus from the city of Bowling Green.

City council made it official Dec. 6, awarding the incentive for completion of the East Wooster Street project nine months prior to the original completion date.

Joe Rutherford, public information officer for Ohio Department of Transportation District Two, said the only remaining work is “punch list” items such as grass seeding and other “little odds and ends” that will be done in the coming months. ODOT managed the project, which began last March.

The city’s push for the street widening, and offer of the bonus to finish it early, supported the University’s view of improvements to the Wooster corridor—the “front door” of both the campus and the city, added Robert Waddle, assistant vice president for capital planning.

Not only has the project made a difference in traffic flow, but the view onto campus with the overhead utility lines removed “is really a tremendous improvement,” Waddle said.

The work will also help the University create the future view envisioned in its master plan as a canopy of trees replaces those removed for the project, he noted.

Giving the roadway back to Bowling Green residents before winter was a city goal in offering the incentive to Kokosing, said Lori Tretter, public information officer for the city and assistant to the municipal administrator.

“We don’t have to have a winter filled with barrels,” she said, recalling the difficulty of recent winters when work on South Main Street made it a construction zone.

The bonus came from a fund established for property acquisition for the project. About $700,000 of the $1 million in the fund had been spent previously. City officials thought the expenditure was a prudent use of taxpayer money, Tretter said, because it would benefit the entire community, as well as BGSU students and other visitors to the city.

Rutherford called the effort a “model project” in terms of both communication and cooperation among the participating governmental entities. “There’s a lot of credit that needs to go around,” he said, citing the city, Kokosing and BGSU representatives in particular.

Both he and Waddle said the project wouldn’t have been as successful as it was without the University’s liaison, Wayne Colvin, whom Waddle described as “incredibly detailed.”

“I can’t think of a better person to put on that job because it required so much detail on a daily basis,” he said.

“We really did have a true, strong partnership,” Tretter added. “There were so many benefits to everyone involved.”