Groundbreaking for Wick Avenue project is Thursday

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Officials with the city, Youngstown State University and Youngstown CityScape will break ground at 10:30 a.m. Thursday on the Wick Avenue Improvement Project.

The project is along Wick Avenue from Wood Street to McGuffey Road, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public-works department. The project costs $4.4 million, he said.

The work will take a year to complete, Shasho said.

The project includes paving, burying utility wires, widening sidewalks, new lighting, replacing a sewer line, replacing two waterlines with one, reducing the four-lane road to three with the middle being a turning lane, and new signs.

“We know the results of this project are going to significantly improve the look and feel of this corridor,” Mayor John A. McNally said. “The new road surface together with the aesthetic upgrades will make Wick Avenue an example of what we can do here in Youngstown.”

Meanwhile, construction on the nearby Lincoln Avenue between Wick and Fifth avenues, another main route to the YSU campus, started Aug. 11 and will take about 120 days to complete.