Holmes County readies 2026 road resurfacing with lone Melway bid

Holmes County’s next round of road work was set to bring fresh pavement to County Road 160 West, County Road 160 East, County Road 200, County Road 292 and County Road 53, with Millersburg-based Melway Paving emerging as the lone bidder for the 2026 sales-tax paving package.

The project is part of the county’s voter-approved 0.25% permissive sales-tax program, the dedicated fund that has underwritten Holmes County’s rolling resurfacing plan since voters first approved it in November 2016. Collections began in 2017, the tax was renewed in 2021 for the 2022-2026 cycle, and county materials note it will be before voters again in 2026.

That fund is the backbone of the county engineer’s long-term goal to repave county roads on a roughly 10-year cycle. Holmes County Engineer public materials say the county maintains about 250 miles of county roadway and 283 county bridges, giving the paving program its scale and urgency. The county’s public paving dashboard shows roughly 257 miles repaved so far and about $22.9 million in program totals.

For drivers, the work means short-term disruption on the listed routes, but longer-term relief on roads that carry farm equipment, commuter traffic and local deliveries across the county. The engineer’s office typically posts traffic advisories, project notices and block-level details before crews mobilize, and residents using the affected roads can expect rolling lane closures, flagging and, in some places, brief detours during paving windows.

Melway’s role was no surprise to county watchers. The company has become a familiar name in Holmes County road maintenance, winning or bidding on multiple recent county paving packages. County records show Melway was awarded the 2025 paving package at $2,572,378, with an OPWC grant helping offset resurfacing costs. Earlier local coverage also documented Melway awards in 2024 at about $2.5 million and in 2022 at about $3.154 million.

The normal approval path runs through County Engineer Chris Young, who reviews bids and recommends awards to the Board of Commissioners. Commissioners then adopt the resolution that lets the work move ahead. With the lone 2026 bid in hand, the county was positioned to move from paperwork to construction season once the contract was finalized and weather opened a workable paving window.

For Holmes County motorists, the sales tax is buying visible mileage, one road section at a time, and the 2026 list showed the next stretch of that program already lined up.