VIENNA — A township intersection that has been the site of gruesome crashes over the past decade could look different in the next several years for motorists, according to Justin Chesnic, public information officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation District 4.

At a Thursday morning meeting in Akron attended in person and remotely by numerous ODOT representatives, Vienna Trustee Phil Pegg and Trumbull County Deputy Engineer Gary Shaffer, ODOT officials presented a safety study and recommended countermeasures for the state Route 82 and Niles Vienna Road intersection.

“We talked to them about this intersection of Niles Vienna, and between 2011 and 2023, there was about 40 crashes at the intersection,” Chesnic said. “Three of them were fatal, 13 had injury crashes.”

From 2019 to 2023, 56% of crashes in the intersection were fatalities, according to data provided by ODOT.

Chesnic said 50% of the crashes were angle crashes, also known as T-bone collisions or side-swipe accidents, where one vehicle hits the side of another at an angle near or at 90 degrees, commonly at intersections. Chesnic said those particular crashes tend to be more severe.

Chesnic said ODOT officials spoke with everyone in attendance about what could be done with the intersection, and a preferred alternative was a “restricted crossing U-turn” — also called an “RCUT.”

“So basically what you’re doing is, you’re eliminating at that intersection, the straight-through movement for folks going on Niles Vienna coming north and south,” Chesnic said. “They can make a right to go out, travel down the appropriate direction of 82 and then flip around if you’re going in the westbound direction and come back eastbound and make a right.”

For motorists traveling Niles Vienna wanting to go left to go to Route 82 west, Chesnic said they would have to make a right and go eastbound on 82, then loop around to state Route 193 and come back westbound.

“What this will do is eliminate those crash points; we’ve found that RCUTS are very helpful in reducing serious injury-type crashes,” Chesnic said. “And again, there were a lot of them here at this intersection.”

Chesnic said officials plan to submit a funding application to ODOT Safety, which he said they’ll do later this month — maybe even September. He said they should hear back about funding by the end of the year.

Chesnic said if the project gets funding, they’ll start work on its aspects, ranging from the environment and design to any right-of-way property ODOT would need to purchase. He said they plan to “hopefully” get into construction by the 2027 fiscal year, which would mean construction would begin by late 2027 or sometime in 2028.

“If all goes well — these are all just ballpark dates,” Chesnic said.

Chesnic said the project has an estimated cost of $3.2 million, which will partially be for construction, right-of-way and design.

According to the numbers provided at the meeting, however, the project is expected to cost $4.1 million, broken down as $390,000 for the environmental phase, $90,000 for the detailed design phase, $120,000 for right-of-way or utilities and $3.2 million for its construction, as well as $320,000 for construction engineering.

With $520,000 in sponsor funding shaving $200,000 off construction and entirely covering construction engineering, it comes to $3.6 million in new safety for the area.

Pegg said Thursday’s meeting was positive, noting that ODOT representatives listened — which is “always a positive thing”, noting that they were aware of all four of the township’s crossovers on state Route 82 — Scoville North, Niles Vienna, Sodom Hutchings SE and Warner Road.

He added that police Chief Brian Darbey reported another wreck on Niles Vienna on Thursday.

“I was very pleased with all the information they had, they only go back five years for the deaths, but they went clear back to 2011, and since 2011, there have been 40 accidents there,” Pegg said. “He (Chesnic) was very good with me, and I expressed to him that I was very, very appreciative that they were doing this.”

Pegg said officials plan to pen a letter of support, which they will get to ODOT to get the money moving. He also plans on sending letters to state legislators, hoping that with their support, ODOT will get the money in the pipeline to make the project happen.