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How you should detour around the Vrooman Road closure in Lake County

Lifelong Lake County resident Erica Kosinski works with WKYC Traffic reporter Danielle Wiggins to find additional detours around the Vrooman Road closure near the Grand River.

PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- The scramble for additional detours to the Vrooman Road closure is on for drivers in Lake County.

Vrooman closed permanently Thursday night between SR 84 and north of Mason’s Landing Park near the Grand River. This is four days before the planned closure date of Monday, March 26.

RELATED | Vrooman Road closed permanently between Mason's Landing Park and State Route 84 starting tonight

“ODOT has advised the Lake County Engineer’s Office to close the portion of Vrooman Rd south of SR 84 as soon as possible based on an inspection of the retaining wall in the area,” says ODOT Public Information Officer Amanda McFarland.

“We understand that closing this section of Vrooman Road is an inconvenience to many residents and that it will require many to extend their commute time. However, public safety is and should be of the utmost concern for our office,” says a release issued from the Lake County Engineer.

The posted detour for the 4,000 vehicles that take Vrooman daily involves using I-90, SR 44 and SR 84.

Erica Kosinski is one of those 4,000. She is a life-long resident of Lake County and is working on different ways to get around the closure because she says the posted detour will double her drive time.

“Vrooman Rd was designed to be a straight shot to I-90 for people who live on this end of the county,” Kosinski says. “This is a continuous band-aid effect and it needs major surgery with a competent surgeon and I don’t think they found that surgeon.”

RELATED | Vrooman Road hill closing, $30 million bridge project begins soon

The “surgery” is expected to start this summer in the form of a $30 millionODOT project to replace the Vrooman Rd bridge over the Grand River and resurface Vrooman between I-90 and SR 84. The project first needs to receive federal approval before a contractor can be selected.

The new bridge is expected to open to the public by the fall of 2019. Until then, the hunt continues for detours.

Drivers who need to get to I-90 East from north of Vrooman can take SR 84 to River Rd EB to SR 528/River St NB to I-90 EB.

Those heading west to eastern Cuyahoga County can also try SR 2 WB to pick up the East Shoreway at the Euclid Spur or I-90 EB to I-271 in Willoughby Hills.

If you have additional detours around this closure tweet me using @DaniWKYC or e-mail me at daniellewiggins@wkyc.com. I’ll continue to update this story with your detour options.

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