Last week, in response to viwer inquiries , 21 News questioned the Mahoning County engineer as to why paving along Mahoning Avenue can't be done at night - when there's less traffic. In that report, he said it was a safety concern for both the drivers and the workers. So now comes the paving project on Route 224 in Boardman. 

The stretch of road on 224 near the Shops at Boardman Park is probably the busiest stretch of roadway in the entire Mahoning Valley.
Over 34,000 cars travel through here each day.

That's why ODOT says night time paving is best.

Paving crews clock in at 9pm and work through 9am. Tuesday night they were busy ripping out the old pavement on route 224.

"We do it at night to lessen the impact on local businesses there and we do it at night because traffic would just back up because of the high volume of work.," said ODOT Dist. 4 spokesperson, Ray Marsch.

So why doesn't the county pave at night along Mahoning Avenue in Austintown?

County engineer Pat Ginetti told us last week it was a safety issue. He says it adds cost to the project. Plus he says Mahoning avenue just isn't as congested as 224.

"It's hard enough navigating a construction zone in the daytime where you can see everything. You do that at night then you have limited visibility and you have the glare of the construction lights, that poses a whole other safety risk<' said ginetti.< p>

But the ODOT spokesperson says for them it is actually safer to work at night and he isn't aware of any motorist complaints about the bright lights.

"When there's less traffic on the road it does make it safer for the contractors to work out there because you don't have as much traffic as you go by," said Marsch.

Ginetti says you really can't compare the projects because both are very different. He says the state has more funding and equipment to do those kinds of jobs at night. And he says Mahoning is just a 2" deep mill and pave while 224 is a 4-6" deep mill that requires an immediate pave to even up the lanes for traffic, something that wouldn't be possible during daytime traffic.

The Mahoning project is scheduled to be completed in two weeks while the 224 project is expected to continue through the end of July.