Muskingum County to Upgrade and Take Ownership of Private Industrial Park Road

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- The Muskingum County Engineers Office met with the County Commissioners to iron out the plans underway to transfer Loop Road from a private road to a county road. Loop Road services an industrial park, home to six corporations, and is the only industrial park in the county that is serviced by a private road.  

Loop Road is one mile long and northeast of Frazeysburg just south of State Route 16. With Muskingum County currently maintaining and operating 525 miles of road -which is more county roads in total mileage than any other county in the state- taking responsibility for this extra mile is not as easy as it sounds. But the county says making the road public is the right thing to do and will ease the financial burden of the businesses located on that road.

“So instead of them being able to expand their business or provide additional healthcare benefits, or more jobs; they’re having to put money into the roads. So what we’re doing is helping those businesses provide more jobs to the community,” Mark Eicher, County Engineer with the Muskingum County Engineer’s Office stated.

As of current, the businesses located on Loop Road have to pay for snow removal in the winter, and are responsible for shoulder maintenance and mowing, and road repair. Converting it to a public county road will make the industrial park more attractive to businesses wanting to locate or expand there.

“75% of the money it would take to bring it up to correct standards, they have that through grants available through Jobs Ohio and those types of grants where it’s for business parks,” Eicher said.

The remaining 25% of the funding for the upgrades required to bring the private road to county road standards will be supplied by the six businesses currently located on the road. Securing funding and solidifying plans is just the first step and they anticipate the conversion to take place in the next year or two.