Relief is in sight from downtown detours

By David Skolnick

The city didn’t bother announcing the downtown street closings in advance.

YOUNGSTOWN — Traffic along one of downtown’s busiest streets should be back to normal by the end of the week.

It was anything but normal Tuesday.

Those driving downtown expecting to travel on West Federal Street and/or some of its side streets were taken on a ride — a lengthy ride that backed up travel during Tuesday morning “rush hour.”

A “little miscommunication” between the city and Parella-Pannunzio Inc., the Austintown company doing the repair work to West Federal, resulted in the street between Fifth and Wick avenues being closed for hours early Tuesday, said Charles T. Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.

Motorists were detoured to West Commerce Street.

But that really didn’t help.

Without the city’s knowledge or permission, Dominion East Ohio decided to do routine maintenance to its gas lines on West Commerce Street between Fifth and Wick avenues at the same time West Federal Street was closed.

Vehicular traffic on West Commerce was restricted in both directions until about 2 p.m.

“It was a nightmare traffic day,” Shasho said.

Parella-Pannunzio paved West Federal from Fifth Avenue to South Phelps Street last Monday with the plan for most of the street to reopen early Tuesday in time to accommodate morning vehicular traffic.

Instead, Parella-Pannunzio closed most portions of West Federal from Fifth to Wick avenues Tuesday morning.

Also closed were South Phelps and South Hazel streets as well as Symphony Place between West Federal and West Commerce. A small portion of Vindicator Square near West Federal Street was also closed.

That made it impossible for motorists to do anything but take one direction around West Federal between Fifth and Wick.

Parella-Pannunzio completed about 99 percent of the paving work Monday and finished it Tuesday, Shasho said.

The company will paint stripes on the street Thursday, which ends the project except for planting some trees, Shasho said.

Traffic on that portion of West Federal will be restricted during the striping.

The project, costing about $500,000, finished about a month ahead of time, but not soon enough for Shasho and motorists who use the road.

“The sooner it gets done, the happier I’ll be,” he said.

The city didn’t issue an advisory to the media and the public about the street closures because motorists had ignored previous ones about the parking ban on West Federal during the construction project, Shasho said.

Adding to Tuesday morning’s traffic backup was work being done by Dominion East Ohio on West Commerce Street, used as a detour for the West Federal Street project.

Routine maintenance to the company’s gas lines on West Commerce, which included digging large holes along the street, came as a surprise to Shasho, who didn’t learn about it until he was questioned by The Vindicator.

When Dominion does this work, it’s supposed to get a street cut permit from the city, something it failed to do, Shasho said.

The timing couldn’t have been worse, he added.

“We try to coordinate with the city [on our projects] and we didn’t do it in this case,” said Neil Durbin, a Dominion spokesman, who was unaware of the work until told by the newspaper about it. “It’s unfortunate timing.”

skolnick@vindy.com