By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city didn’t waste time awarding a contract to a firm for a major improvement project on Lincoln Avenue.

Proposals were opened last Friday, and the board of control approved a contact Thursday with Parella-Pannunzio Inc. for slightly more than $1.3 million at a special meeting.

The Youngstown company had the lowest proposal among six for the job.

Work will begin at the start of July and take up to 120 days to finish, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department.

The project on Lincoln Avenue between Wick Avenue and Hazel Street includes paving, sewer improvements, marked crosswalks, new sidewalk curbs, small pedestrian islands at intersections, installing about 20 parking meters that allow motorists to pay with debit and credit cards, and removing parking spaces on the north side of the street.

The road runs through the Youngstown State University campus and that stretch of Lincoln Avenue will be closed when the fall semester starts Aug. 24.

“I expect a small amount of inconvenience with this, but it’s an important project,” said Mayor John A. McNally.

The city has $1.2 million in federal funding for the project, and will use wastewater money to make up the difference with those funds used for the sewer improvements.

Meanwhile, the city will open proposals next Friday for work on Wick Avenue, a main entrance to the YSU campus, between Wood Street and McGuffey Road.

The project will take a year to complete and start in August, Shasho said.

The project, estimated to cost $4.9 million, will move above-ground utility poles underground between Rayen Avenue and the Madison Avenue Expressway access roads.

The work also includes replacing two waterlines with one, replacing a sewer line, installing new traffic lights, reducing the four-lane road to three with the middle being a turning lane and repaving the road.

“It’s a complete rebuild of the roadway,” Shasho said.

Portions of the road will be closed when construction work is being done with detours posted, he said.

The underground work will occur during the winter.

The city is paying $3.9 million for the work, with YSU giving $800,000 toward the project. Youngstown CityScape is raising money for part of the job.