LISBON - If the revamped Challenger Drive/state Route 170 intersection in Calcutta creates more problems than it solves, Columbiana County commissioners will help fix it.

The commissioners last week adopted a memorandum of understanding with the Ohio Department of Transportation promising to cover 25 percent of the cost of restructuring the intersection should the need arise in the future.

Plans are in the works to renovate the intersection as part of the Columbia Drive project. Columbia Drive is the proposed road linking McGuffey Drive in St. Clair Township to Route 170. Columbia Drive would end at the lighted intersection across from Challenger Drive, which serves as the entrance to two shopping plazas.

The cost of the entire project is an estimated $2 million, and commissioners obtained a $750,000 state grant on behalf of the township trustees, who were required to come up with 25 percent in matching funds.

Commissioner Jim Hoppel said there is only enough money currently to do the intersection portion of the project, which will include additional turning lanes into and from Challenger Drive, and elimination of a concrete divider that has caused problems for motorists entering Challenger Drive.

"Have you noticed the black tire marks on that island? I have," he said.

ODOT isn't especially keen on the new intersection and wants assurances that if traffic is made worse that something would be done. The memorandum of understanding states that if periodic traffic studies show the intersection drops below a "C" rating by 2025, corrective action would be taken, with ODOT paying half the cost, and the county and township covering 25 percent each.

Hoppel said the money would come from the county engineer's office, and not the county general fund. He said county Engineer Bert Dawson believes that rather than make things worse, the new intersection will improve traffic flow on one of the busiest stretches of road in the county.

"Bert doesn't think there'll ever be a problem ... but the state wanted to protect itself in case there is a problem," Hoppel said.

Officials believe Columbia Drive would open 140 acres of mostly vacant land to possible commercial development, and in the process give Calcutta the boost it needs to resume growing.