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Mahoning Avenue will be closed for at least another week
YOUNGSTOWN
It will be at least another week before a lower portion of Mahoning Avenue — the location of a major sinkhole and collapse of water and sewer lines — is reopened.
Most of the repair work is done, but a “major obstruction” in the sewer line still needs to be addressed as well as pouring concrete and then asphalt on the road before it can reopen, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.
The work is estimated to cost $260,000, he said. The board of control voted Thursday to accept a state grant of up to $213,479 to offset the cost. The state is providing up to 80 percent of the project’s cost.
“We’re trying to get Mahoning Avenue fixed as quickly as we can,” Mayor John A. McNally said. “Our contractor is working 16-hour days.”
The city closed the Frank Sinkwich Bridge on Mahoning Avenue between Glenwood and McKinley avenues Oct. 28 to make repairs after the sinkhole developed. Mahoning Avenue is one of the major roads on the city’s West Side.
Utility Contracting Co., the Youngstown company hired by the city to make the repairs, has “worked very efficiently. It’s going about as smooth as it can go,” Shasho said.
Heavy rain after the sinkhole developed caused backups in houses mostly on Whitney Avenue, near the site of the collapse. The sinkhole was about 25 feet across and 15 feet deep.
Cleanup work at 13 or 14 houses is finished, but replacements or repairs to eight furnaces and six hot-water heaters still need to be done, Shasho said.
The cleanup work cost about $37,000, with the city paying that expense, Shasho said.
The work for the furnaces and hot-water heaters will cost about $27,000, also being covered by the city.
City officials said last week they expected the road to reopen a couple of days ago.
Shasho said Thursday the delay was caused by the sewer-line obstruction near Whitney that needs to be cleaned and the discovery that a metal trolley-rail line under the street and above the 106-year-old sewer line is in the way. That trolley line is as least as long as the 250-foot sewer line that collapsed, he said. Finding the line was a surprise, but then learning it was so long was an even bigger surprise, he said.