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Kimberly-Clark access road cost expected to rise. by Denise Dick Wednesday, October 28, 2026 WARREN, Ohio - The cost of a state Route 45 access road to support Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Trumbull County plant is going to be higher than expected. The 2.6-mile project aims to connect the area south of Kimberly-Clark's $800 million plant now under construction to state Route 45. The work is slated for three phases. The first phase, widening Lane West Road, is expected to begin early next year and conclude that same year. The second phase, an upgrade to Burnett Road East, will start later in the year and carry over into 2028. The third phase, a new roadway including construction of a bridge over the Mahoning River connecting to Pine Avenue Extension, should begin in early 2028 and extend through 2029. At a Warren-Howland-Warren Joint Economic Development District meeting Tuesday, David DeChristofaro, Trumbull County engineer, told board members that detailed engineering started early this year with soil borings, pavement cores and wetland delineations, studying the hydrology and hydraulics of the Mahoning River floodplain. "The pavement cores showed that the existing pavement on Lane West and Burnett East were insufficient to carry the added traffic, including truck traffic" with what was initially expected, DeChristofaro said. The two roads require reconstruction. Also, the floodplain studies of the Mahoning River showed that the construction of a 275-foot-long bridge, which was proposed in a preliminary report by an engineering consultant, would cause a 0.4 foot rise in the base flood elevation, which DeChristofaro said is unacceptable. "Even a 400-foot-long bridge caused an unacceptable rise in the base flood elevation," he said. To pass over the floodplain and the river and not impact base flood elevation would require a 1,500-foot-long bridge. That would cost more than $25 million. "We're estimating that this project shouldn't cost $25 million, so, obviously, that's not something that we can do," the county engineer said. The other option to mitigate the impact to the base flood elevation in the floodplain is to remove material along this side of the river, which he said is mostly slag material. "Now, there's a cost in removing that material," DeChristofaro said. It's possible the Western Reserve Port Authority would be able to move much, if not all, of the material in one area of the project. The cost hasn't been determined, but DeChristofaro estimated about 700,000 tons of material needs to be removed. If that material is pushed from one area to another, the cost is about $4 per ton. If it has to be hauled away, the cost would depend on where it's hauled but could be more than $20 per ton. "That's still an unknown, but we know it's not going to be cheap. But it's going to be a lot cheaper than a 1,500-foot bridge," DeChristofaro said. Opting for a curbs and closed drainage design rather than no curbs and open ditches also will be more expensive. But the county engineer said curbs and closed drainage will reduce the cost of maintenance of the road, eliminate overgrowth of wetland vegetation and trees in the open ditches, prevent the edge of pavement from cracking and provide a better appearance. The Ohio Department of Development's All Ohio Future Fund in April 2025 awarded $17.2 million in grants and loans for roadway and other infrastructure improvements to support the Kimberly-Clark project. The payoff to the All Ohio Future Fund is $6,465,380. "And it's important to note that if the state does forgive the All Ohio Future Fund loan, this balance can increase by the roughly $6.5 million of loan forgiveness," he said. "Now, it is this balance of JEDD revenues that the [Trumbull County] commissioners would be looking to request from the JEDD to be used to pay any loans that they need after exhausting any future federal or state grants" to complete the third phase. Work in the third phase will enable the county to know how much is needed in a loan, and representatives of the county engineer's and other offices will seek federal and state funds to help fund the roadwork, DeChristofaro said. There also may be more projects over the next several years that will bring in more funding to the JEDD, he added. "There is enough All Ohio Future Fund grants to pay for Phase One and Phase Two," DeChristofaro said. "It's when we start Phase Three in 2029 that additional funds are going to be needed - not before 2029. We don't need to borrow any money before that." He said his staff and the planning commission staff are going to be looking for grants, and whatever grants they get will be subtracted from what is remaining. And that balance will need to be paid through some source. Commissioners would likely be looking at JEDD revenues to pay that balance, he added. DeChristofaro said the project is at a standstill because the Ohio Department of Development was required to know how the balance of the access road project was going to be paid before it would continue to finance it. Commissioners at a work session Tuesday considered a resolution to accomplish that. They are expected to vote on it at their regular meeting Wednesday. DeChristofaro read from the resolution: "To certify that at the exhaustion of the All Ohio Future Fund for design and construction of the BDM SR 45 access road, the Board of Trumbull County Commissioners will seek funds through the Ohio Department of Transportation State Infrastructure Bank, which is a low-interest loan bank through the Department of Transportation, and other sources... within financial reason, for completion of work designed at the discretion of the Trumbull County Engineer." The JEDD was formed in summer 2025 by the city of Warren and Howland and Warren townships. It collects a 2% income tax from workers in the district and levies a 2% tax on the profits of businesses within the district to fund infrastructure improvements. The three political jurisdictions also receive a share of the tax collections as reimbursements for services they are providing within the JEDD.

A Motley Fool columnist weighed Dutch Bros against Kimberly-Clark and picked the consumer staples firm as the safer buy for 2026. Dutch Bros runs 1,314 drive-thru coffee shops. Its FY 2025 revenue reached nearly $1.6 billion, up about 27.9%, and net income rose to roughly $79.8 million from $35.3 million. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio is 42.4x, and its shares are down nearly 32% this year. Kimberly-Clark's FY 2025 revenue fell to about $16.4 billion, though net income was nearly $2 billion. Its shares are up 8.1% in 2026, and its dividend yields 4.6%. It has agreed to acquire Kenvue, which brings integration and debt risks. Its forward price-to-earnings ratio is 14.5x. The author likes Dutch Bros as a small, speculative growth holding, but favours Kimberly-Clark for its defensive profile amid market uncertainty.

Jim Cramer called Kimberly-Clark a "hated" Dividend King on CNBC on October 15, 2026, citing a 5.5% dividend yield. The real yield is about 4.8%, based on a $1.28 quarterly payout and a $107.04 share price. The company has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years, but this year's increase was only about 1.59%. In 2025 it paid out roughly 101% of its free cash flow ($1.639 billion) in dividends ($1.66 billion), as capital spending rose to $1.138 billion from $721 million. Shares rose 8.9% last week after better-than-expected preliminary third-quarter results. The European Commission and Brazilian regulators also approved its $48.7 billion Kenvue acquisition.