YOUNGSTOWN State OKs Federal Plaza project

Construction should begin no later than March 1, a city official says.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City officials received word that they will be allowed to solicit bids as early as December for the long-delayed Federal Street reconstruction project.
Carmen Conglose Jr., the city's deputy director of public works, said the Ohio Department of Transportation informed him that the project is in compliance with agency rules, and the final plans are to be submitted to the state agency by Dec. 13.
"We now meet all their requirements and they want to see our final plans," he said.
The project would remove the pedestrian plaza and reopen Federal Street, one of downtown's main streets, to traffic. City officials say reopening the plaza is a vital component to improve the economic viability of downtown, and thus the city.
Delay
The project to reopen downtown's pedestrian plaza to traffic was dealt a blow in June when city officials learned that new ODOT procedures would force the delay of the project. The procedures tightened oversight by ODOT over how local governments spend federal dollars from the agency's Local Public Agency program.
The city was prepared to bid out the project at the time after nearly seven years of preparation.
ODOT will take 10 to 14 days from Dec. 13 to review the city's final plans for Federal Plaza, and then permit the city to accept bids in late December or early January, Conglose said.
The project will cost about $2.6 million, with $2.13 million of it coming from federal funds, Conglose said.
Construction should begin no later than March 1, Conglose said. It will take nine to 10 months to finish the job.
The street was closed to vehicular traffic in the 1970s to create a pedestrian walkway and improve the downtown's appearance. Critics say closing the street to cars kept people from downtown businesses and they ended up going to suburban malls and plazas. A number of downtown businesses closed.
Also, the condition of the pedestrian plaza has deteriorated over the years, with pieces of the sidewalk broken and cracked.
skolnick@vindy.com