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Youngstown is spending $1.3 million to pave parts of 72 streets
YOUNGSTOWN
The city is spending $1,335,151 to pave portions of 72 streets, mostly in neighborhoods, with work starting about May 30.
The paving will be finished in August, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.
Nearly all of the streets being improved this year haven’t been paved in at least a decade, he said.
“Streets aren’t on a rotation,” Shasho said. “We won’t pave a street unless it really needs it. I’d love to see our resurfacing budget be three times as large as we have, but we don’t have the money. But we’re being as aggressive as we can with paving.”
RT Vernal Paving & Excavating of North Lima will be the paving project’s contractor for the fifth straight year. The company’s proposal was the lowest of four submitted to the city for the neighborhood paving job, with the other proposals ranging in cost from $1,493,937 to $1,845,997.
The portions of 72 streets being paved equals 25 lane miles. A lane mile is 1 mile long and 12 feet wide.
The city had 24 lane miles done last year.
The funding for the paving comes primarily from the city’s federal Community Development Block Grant funds and its motor-vehicle license taxes, Shasho said.
The city selects streets to be paved based on various criteria including cracks, vehicular traffic, the number of residents living on the streets, and its proximity to other, larger street-paving projects, Shasho said.
“But the biggest thing I look at is widespread potholes,” he said. “If there are a couple, we can fill them. If there are a lot of potholes, we look to put that street on the paving list.”
For the past few years, the city has started its neighborhood paving project in late June with the contractor not finished until September, Shasho said. But the decision was made this year to move it up a month to get a jump-start on the work, he said.