CONSTRUCTION City announces plans to renovate six bridges

As part of the upgrade, the bridges will have a color theme.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Ohio Department of Transportation officials have revealed the Corridor Vision plans that will make six bridges over the Madison Avenue Expressway more structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing.
The six bridges to be upgraded along the road, which is also U.S. Route 422 on the city's North Side, are at Wick Avenue, Ford Avenue, Belmont Avenue, Covington Street, Fifth Avenue and Elm Street. The work will begin in the late summer of 2005.
The upgrades will take approximately two years to complete. ODOT representatives said the entire project will cost about $6.8 million.
Traffic
Mohammed Darwish, ODOT District 4 deputy director, said the Elm, Covington and Ford street bridges will be closed for about two or three months during the construction process.
Darwish said traffic on the other three bridges will be held to one lane in each direction during the construction. The work on the Belmont and Fifth Avenue bridges will be done in two phases with traffic using opposite sides of the road in each phase. The Wick Avenue bridge will only be repaired and painted.
Jennifer Richmond, ODOT public information officer, said the upgrades were needed because the bridge decks on the bridges are in poor condition. The bridges will also be raised between 6 to 12 inches to create more room for trucks under the bridges.
Darwish said with the detours and traffic control measures in place, commuters should not have a problem traveling through the bridge areas.
Color theme
Along with the upgrades, ODOT plans a few aesthetic improvements as well.
There will be a color theme for the bridges of red, light neutral and black. Each bridge will have red exterior steel beams, light neutral concrete sealer and black fencing, light posts, traffic signal poles and traffic sign posts.
Each bridge will also have two, large black Y's attached to the fencing on either side of the bridge. Instead of guardrails at the approaches to the bridges, approach-barrier walls will be installed to provide areas for planting.
Darwish said the motif was created by members of the Youngstown Aesthetics Committee, including representatives of ODOT, Youngstown, Youngstown State University, St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, the Regional Metropolitan Planning Organization, Streetscape and various businesses and citizens.
YSU President Dr. David Sweet said there will undoubtedly be complaints about traffic during the upgrade work, but he said "there is no such thing as painless progress." He said the collaborative effort seen on the project is what the area needs.
City Councilman Richard Atkinson, R-3rd, said the upgrades will be good for the residents of his ward, saying the work is a small piece of the larger puzzle to bring the city together.
jgoodwin@vindy.com