Port of Cleveland Partners with ODOT To Build Maintenance Facility
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 09:26AM 
Yesterday the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority’s Board of Directors agreed plans to enter into a partnership with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to build a highway maintenance facility on a six-acre site in Euclid, OH to house office, garage, and storage facilities for highway repair and snow removal.
The port authority will finance and build the complex – which is estimated to cost $4 million to $5 million – and then sell the finished facility to ODOT. The new facility will position ODOT’s District 12 to provide more efficient and effective snow removal and highway maintenance operations for highway drivers in Cuyahoga County’s eastern suburbs as early as next year.
The Euclid facility will replace an outdated highway maintenance garage in Mayfield Village before the 2013 winter season, something that has been a top priority for District 12. The facility is expected to include: an office and maintenance building, a heated truck storage building, a refueling station, and a salt storage area. ODOT expects to employ 25 to 30 people at the garage.
ODOT turned to the Port because it needed to move quickly to build the Euclid facility. The partnership will allow ODOT to stay focused on its core mission of highway construction and maintenance.
“We are pleased to provide a cost-effective and timely facility solution to ODOT that will benefit highway users in our region,” said Port Authority CEO Will Friedman. “This project illustrates another way the Port of Cleveland can partner with public, private and nonprofit organizations that drive our economy and support job growth.”
The Port plans to use the design-build project delivery system, which was established last year under a new state law that overhauled the way public entities can construct public projects. Design-build contracts can decrease costs and speed up construction. The Port will finance the construction and then be repaid when it sells the facility to ODOT. A purchase agreement has already been negotiated.
The project is contingent on the completion of ongoing due diligence as well as approval from the State Controlling Board, which will consider the purchase agreement on May 21.