By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The city received only one proposal below its estimate for improvement work to two of downtown’s busiest streets.

The city opened three proposals Friday for work to Federal Street between Phelps and Walnut streets and to Market Street from Front to Commerce streets.

Butch & McCree Paving Inc. of Hillsville, Pa., submitted the apparent lowest amount of $403,651. The city’s estimate for the project was $405,759.

The two other proposals were $408,607 from RT Vernal Paving & Excavating Inc. of North Lima and $432,348 from Barbicas Construction Co. Inc. of Akron.

A federal grant will provide 80 percent of the project’s cost with the rest coming from the city’s $5 vehicle license fee.

The board of control needs to approve the Butch & McCree contract for the work to begin. But the project isn’t going to start until after the Greater Youngstown Italian Fest, which runs from Aug. 4-6, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works for the city.

The work includes resurfacing, pavement markings and replacing traffic signs on streets.

The project would take about two weeks to complete with the streets closed to vehicular traffic, but possibly not for the entire time, Shasho said.

“If there’s time between milling and paving, we’ll open the streets,” he said. “We’re trying to make it as convenient as possible, but we need to close the streets to get the work done quicker. If the work was done with the streets open to traffic and parking, it would drag the project out. We might do it in two phases.”

If there’s a wait between grinding up the asphalt and paving, the streets would be open to traffic during that time, Shasho said.