After facing months of delays, Ironton's floodgate improvement project at the entrance to the Center Street Landing should begin within the next two to three months.

The single-lane entrance will be reconfigured to accommodate two-lanes of traffic and will allow more visibility when crossing the railroad tracks. The sharp turn will be removed and the grade of the hill will be lessened, said City Engineer Philip Biggs.

Signs, lights and curbs will be added around the entrance. Part of the floodwall will be removed and the gate structure will be replaced with aluminum.

Originally scheduled to begin last fall, the project was delayed until the city obtained all the necessary permits. Plans have already been approved by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Watercraft and the Army Corps of Engineers, Biggs said.

However, Norfolk Southern was worried about the structural integrity of the railroad tracks during construction. The company has required a temporary retaining wall be built to reinforce the tracks.

Last week, council authorized the mayor to award a contract of $8,800 to MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Inc. of Lexington, Ky., for geotechnical design work.

"This has nothing to do with the floodgate itself. It is just a retaining structure to hold up the tracks during excavation," Biggs said. "Hopefully, they will be drilling this week, analyze the results and then design it."

While these designs are submitted to Norfolk Southern, the project will be put to bid and bids should be returned within 60 days of today, Biggs said.

The design will be incorporated into the bid package and the retaining structure will be built by the contractor awarded the project. Overall, the project should only take about 90 days once construction begins, he said.

"It will be tremendously safer," he said. "You will be able to stand on Center Street and see the river. It will be an impressive opening that will be a night and day difference."

The $360,000 project has been in planning stages for nearly three years.

The Huntington-Ironton Empowerment Zone has allocated $182,000, ODNR's Waterway Safety Fund has appropriated $168,000 and the city will spend about $10,000 from the engineering department's budget, Biggs said.

The project will be bid for a complete closure of the entrance. An alternate access from Second and Union streets will be opened.

"There will never be a time when people will not have complete access to the river port," he said. "We still hope to have the main entrance open by the Fourth of July. We will not have the construction finished, but the intention is to insure access."

An eminent domain suit filed in October against Center Street Landing LLC

still must be resolved. Bob Johnson, operator of the Dockside Grill, leases the 73,111 square foot property from the city under a 30-year lease that began in 1988.

The city is filing to obtain 927 square feet of the property at the front edge of the business' parking lot. The triangular shaped section is valued at about $8, according to Tri-State Appraisal, Inc., Chesapeake.

Mayor Bob Cleary said the issue is waiting to be heard in court, but will not hold up the project in any way. Cleary said the city solicitors recently told him they hope the issue will be settled out of court within a few weeks.