STEUBENVILLE — The orange construction barrels are going to stay where they are on state Route 7 in Steubenville, at least for now.

City Engineer Mike Dolak said crews at the work site Friday — the innermost southbound lane by the Jefferson County Justice Center — were doing “prep work.”

“ODOT is coming in on Monday, they’re going to core the road, the southbound lane,” he said. “They’ll core down through the road to see if we have any voids under the pavement — we did it in the northbound lanes and did find (some), now we’re going to do the southbound passing lane.”

He said if they do find more voids, crews will be back Tuesday “to pump grout through those holes to fill them.”

Dolak said ODOT is assisting the city with the cores, but they have to pay a contractor to cover labor and materials for filling the voids.

“We’re probably about $35,000 into this right now,” he said, and that’s without the southbound lane being factored in.