County residents may soon be riding their vehicles over top the former county courthouse - literally.
More than 6,500 tons of ground up stone and brick from the 1884 Seneca County courthouse are being tested to see if the mixture is suitable for use as berm under and alongside county roads.
Seneca County Engineer Mark Zimmerman bought the rubble earlier this year from B&B Wrecking and Excavating Inc. of Cleveland, who ground the material into three consistencies and placed it behind the County Engineer's Office.
"I thought, anyway I am able to save the county money, I am going to do it," Zimmerman said.
The testing phase involves a 50-foot-long stretch of the material, stacked several feet high, being run over by a dump truck.
This determines how tightly it can be packed, he said.
"After it is compact, we have to let it set a week before we are able to determine if it is stable enough to support roads," Zimmerman added.
Rain also helps it to settle and become more dense, he said.
The County Engineer's Office paid $3.50 per ton for the prospective recycled material for a total of $25,000.
The same amount of stone for berm would have cost $100,000 to $150,000, Zimmerman said.
