north akins

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — The city plans to stabilize a stream bank that, because of erosion, is eating into residential properties on Ohio 82 near North Akins Road.

Toward that end, the city has applied for and received an $84,075 federal/state grant that will help pay for the project’s surveying and design.

Construction is scheduled for next year and is estimated to cost between $213,000 and $355,000.

“The erosion is causing the stream bank to get close to homes,” city Engineer Justin Haselton told cleveland.com in an email.

The total cost of the surveying and design is estimated at $92,925. The city will contribute $8,850 toward the design work. An engineering firm has not yet been hired, Haselton said.

The grant money is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, administered by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.

Haselton said the trouble spot is on the south side of Ohio 82, about 500 feet east of North Akins. North Akins is between York Road to the west and Bennett Road to the east.

According to an official document provided by Haselton, the city in 2021 asked officials from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to inspect the site.

The sewer district, according to its report, found that erosion was occurring along about 355 linear feet of a tributary to the East Branch of the Rocky River and was affecting about four residential properties.

“The erosion is very near one home, reduces the amount of usable lawn space on the properties, has destabilized one footbridge and is a safety concern to the residents,” the sewer district said in its report, dated July 8, 2021.

Looking at aerial photos, the sewer district determined that the stream’s alignment hasn’t changed for the most part since 1951. However, the stream