Youngstown council OKs contracts for improvement of 5th Ave., Front St., and traffic lights

YOUNGSTOWN

City council authorized the board of control to sign contracts with the Ohio Department of Transportation for major street improvement projects that are at least a couple of years away.

The proposals were approved Wednesday to allow design work to start this year, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works. The design work won’t be finished until 2019, he added.

Among the three projects is one that would be done in 2019 on Fifth Avenue from Federal Street to the Madison Avenue Expressway.

The work includes paving, storm-sewer separation, curbing, sidewalk replacements, a landscaping median near Stambaugh Stadium on the Youngstown State University campus and creating turning lanes in sections where there currently are three lanes in each direction, Shasho said.

The second improvement work would be on Front Street from the Marshall Street Bridge to South Avenue. And the third is to replace traffic signals on the Fifth and Front stretches as well as Wick Avenue from Commerce Street to the Eastbound Service Road of the Madison Avenue Expressway to Commerce Street.

Read more about the projects in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.